Chicago News: Renter Protections; Congestion Fee/Taxes; Pension Debt Up $36.4B

00:00 - Intro 00:31 - Renter Protections 02:30 - Congestion Fee/Taxes 04:03 - Pension Debt Chicago News: Mayor Johnson's renter protection proposal faces fierce resistance from building owners; Mayor's financial task force proposes Downtown congestion fee, service tax, restructuring electricity taxes; Chicago’s Pension Debt Increased in 2025 to $36.4B: City Analysis Mayor Johnson's renter protection proposal faces fierce resistance from building owners If Mayor Brandon Johnson hopes to confront Chicago’s affordability crisis by leveling the playing field between renters and landlords, he’ll have to defeat the same real estate interests that shot down his Bring Chicago Home referendum. That much was obvious Monday after Johnson introduced his “Protecting Renters Ordinance,” and the Housing Committee chaired by one of his closest City Council allies — progressive firebrand Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) — held its first public hearing on the mayor’s ordinance. “The resistance we face will be fierce. Corporate interests are already organizing to preserve the status quo. But we will not back down,” Johnson said Monday before the hearing. Landlords showed up in force to protest an ordinance that would ban move-in fees and other “junk fees” without a documented cost, offer legal representation for income-eligible tenants and require landlords to provide a $5,000 payment or five months’ rent — whichever is less — to tenants evicted or not renewed without “just cause.” “It’s going to become stricter and stricter for the housing provider to approve that tenant because they have to renew their lease forever,” one landlord told the committee. Another point of contention is the proposed annual registration fee of $20 per unit to generate $20 million a year for inspections, attorneys and other enforcement costs. That fee is part of a provision within the ordinance that would establish a rental registry to log of who owns the city’s more than 500,000 rental units, and whether those landlords are complying with the law. That measure was included in Johnson’s proposal in reaction to a WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times story about how landlords often set up limited liability companies to mask who they are — creating an anonymity that makes it hard to hold problem landlords accountable. The mayor’s original version would have required $10,000 in compensation to tenants who chose to move out to avoid “unconscionable rent increases.” https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hal... Mayor's financial task force proposes Downtown congestion fee, service tax, restructuring electricity taxes A follow-up report commissioned by Mayor Brandon Johnson lays out an array of revenue-generating options that includes a sales tax on virtually “all consumer services,” taxing high-volume electricity users at a higher rate, and imposing a congestion fee on “vehicles entering or exiting a designated central area during peak periods.” To chip away at Chicago’s $36 billion pension crisis and erase the city’s structural deficit, the 23-member group of civic leaders is also suggesting offering retirees lump-sum payouts in lieu of monthly pension checks, consolidating actuaries and administrators of the four city employee pension funds, and restoring the automatic escalator locking in annual property tax increases at the rate of inflation. https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hal... Chicago’s Pension Debt Increased in 2025 to $36.4B: City Analysis Chicago’s pension debt rose by approximately $500 million in 2025, according to the city’s audited annual financial report, with the amount the city owes to its four pension funds hitting $36.4 billion. In all, Chicago owed 1.4% more to its four employee pension funds representing police officers, firefighters, municipal employees and laborers at the end of 2025 than it did at the end of 2024, according to Chicago’s 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. Chicago’s pension debt has grown by nearly 11% since 2020, adding approximately $3.5 billion to the city’s debt, records show. Even as the city’s overall pension debt increased between 2024 and 2025, the assets held by all four pension funds increased, mitigating the city’s overall pension crisis. The fund designed to pay pensions to Chicago’s police officers is just 25.5% funded, while the fund that pays the pensions of the city’s firefighters is 25.2% funded, according to the city’s annual financial report. The laborers’ fund has the highest funded level, at 44.1%, while the fund that pays pensions to municipal workers is 28.2% funded, according to the report. By comparison, public pension funds in other large cities have average funding levels of about 70%. https://news.wttw.com/2026/07/06/chic...