Mayor Brandon Johnson issued a veto late Friday to an ordinance passed by aldermen to require more City Council support before City Hall issues debt.
Johnson blasted the measure passed last week as a roadblock to improving infrastructure in Chicago’s least wealthy neighborhoods as he announced the veto Friday afternoon.
The veto, his fourth, tees up yet another fight between the mayor and the council, with a final vote on the measure likely to occur Wednesday. Johnson’s opponents need a 34-vote supermajority to overrule the mayor.
“Neighborhoods with the greatest infrastructure needs should not face additional barriers to securing essential public investment,” Johnson wrote in a letter to aldermen. “Delaying infrastructure projects can increase construction costs, worsen deterioration, and ultimately cost taxpayers more.”
The debt-issue measure increased to a 30-member majority of aldermen the number needed to issue bonds and take on other debt, up from the 26-vote threshold that had been the standard. Sponsor Marty Quinn, 13th, argued it would give the council a stronger say over Chicago’s long-term financial health and place City Hall in line with rules governing debt issuances for the Illinois General Assembly.
But after aldermen voted 32-15 to advance the ordinance last week, Johnson quickly signaled he might veto it. He derided the ordinance as a “three-fifths compromise” and said he would “make a (veto) decision that benefits the very people who need this type of investment to work.”
“And those are the families who live on the West and South sides of our city,” Johnson said at the time.
Asked Wednesday by the Tribune if he would issue a veto, Johnson pledged to “do whatever is necessary to protect working people.”
“There’s not a single administration that has invested more on the West and South Side of Chicago in three years, and so I’m going to do whatever is necessary to protect those investments,” he said.
For his part, Quinn criticized Johnson’s decision and said Friday evening he is “full steam ahead” in an attempt to override Johnson’s veto. He argued the ordinance is only a “moderate change” that builds City Council independence in all future mayoral administrations.
“Our debt level is extreme and having more eyes on the city’s finances is a good thing,” Quinn said.
Backers of the higher threshold will need to convince two more aldermen to vote with them. The 32-15 vote last week largely split along lines of Johnson opponents and allies, but three aldermen — Daniel La Spata, 1st, Chris Taliaferro, 29th, and Andre Vasquez, 40th — left the room when the debate started and did not vote on the measure.
Taliaferro said Friday evening he had not decided how he will vote. La Spata said he will vote in Johnson’s favor to sustain the veto, arguing the city typically uses bonds in appropriate ways for needed infrastructure work.
“I think the aim of the ordinance, I would say, misleads the public on what bonds are in Chicago and why they are important,” he said. “The council already this term has eyed (bond proposals) with far too much suspicion … This only moves us further in that direction.”
Vasquez previously said he did not vote so that he could pressure the Johnson administration to support his own ordinance aimed at adding more transparency to bond proposals. He said Friday evening that he met earlier in the day with Johnson’s team to discuss the measure and will continue “to see if an agreement can be found.”
“If there isn’t one to be found, I will not vote to sustain the veto,” he said.
More Top Picks Best Led Desk Lamps For Studying
If backers of the threshold convince just two of the three to back the vetoed ordinance, the council will override Johnson’s veto and make the measure law.
Johnson has used his veto power far more than recent mayors. He previously vetoed a measure to ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products and another ordinance giving the Police Department broader curfew powers.
In April, he vetoed an ordinance phasing out his “One Fair Wage” plan to eliminate the city’s subminimum wage. In each case, aldermen failed to override Johnson’s veto.
Some aldermen have previously tried and failed to put other limits on Johnson’s ability to borrow, including attempts to water down his signature $1.25 billion Housing and Economic Development bond in 2024 and stalling a round of infrastructure borrowing in February 2025.
Critics said they worried about the backloaded debt repayment schedule and a lack of transparency about how the debt would be used.
The increased threshold also comes weeks before Johnson introduces his 2027 budget amid major turnover in the city’s top financial staff and a downslide in Chicago’s standing with ratings agencies. The city suffered a pair of downgrades from credit ratings agencies earlier this year, driving up borrowing costs.
And with an election looming for Johnson and all 50 aldermen, fiscal issues are a bright political dividing line.
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias posted a video Wednesday in support of Quinn’s measure and said, “If the mayor vetoes it, that’s just more proof that he isn’t looking out for taxpayers.” He and most challengers to Johnson have tried to attack him as fixated on passing new taxes or borrowing more rather than cutting government bloat.
Johnson and his progressive allies have hit back that he inherited Chicago’s fiscal problems from predecessors who either made far more reckless decisions or were given a boon in federal COVID-19 stimulus funds.
Chicago’s long-term debt service payments — a continued drag on the overall budget — will jump from $2.16 billion to nearly $2.5 billion in 2027, his finance team told reporters last month.
baiduhai’s Alice Yin and A.D. Quig contributed.