Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that there will be no property-tax increase for Chicagoans next year.
"Because our economy continues to show better than projected recovery, our city revenues continue to exceed our estimates," Lightfoot said in a statement Windy City Times received. "As a consequence, I am happy to announce that we are able to forgo, for one year, the CPI increase on the property-tax levy."
She added that "our anticipated 2023 Budget Gap is among the lowest in recent memory: $128 million. To close this historically low gap, we looked internally first to find solutionsjust like we have in previous years. As our city continues to rebound from the pandemic, our revenues continue to improve helping us to close the gap."
"The City of Chicago has experienced strong revenue performance throughout the course of 2022 and is projected to continue into 2023 due to the strong economic recovery, currently estimated at over $200 million over the budget forecast in FY2023. As a result of this strong improvement in revenues, we have determined it is important to give our taxpayers some additional relief. So, the FY 2023 budget that I will propose to City Council on [Oct. 3] will not include a CPI increase on the property-tax levy."
The announcement comes ahead of the 2023 mayoral elections. According to The Chicago Tribune, "Dumping the tax increase will make it much easier for her to pass the overall budget, and spare her from defending it on the campaign trail ahead of the February local election."
Lightfoot could fill the property-tax gap with some cash the city has collected from amusement taxes and other sources.