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Oh, God dang – this was fun.

I came out of the kitchen with the news to ask major dad what all the howling from the TV was about, and I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard.

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The fragile mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, already has ChiTown residents boiling over his Sanctuary City policies favoring illegal immigrants over the neediest and homeless of Chicago’s American residents (not to mention his toadying obsequience to every demand of the mercenary malcontents of the Chicago Teachers’ Union), made the mistake of trying to pile on the pain with a tax hike on real estate.

Residents who might never have watched the broadcast of a single city council meeting in their entire lives found their way to the council chambers this time for a chance to sit there and confront the mayor in person over the plan.

Angry Chicago residents blasted Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax hike as a way to cover costs of dealing with migrants that have flooded the city over the past year.

A heated city council meeting culminated in a unanimous rejection of the plan after locals expressed their fury in vicious outbursts at the mayor in .

…At the time, Johnson briefed city council members on plans in April to push through the funds to keep the city’s response to helping migrants afloat. 

The money would be used to help feed and house all of the migrants that have been brought to Chicago and its suburbs in the last 18 months. 

But now appears tensions have reached boiling point as Johnson now wants an extra $300 million with none of the proceeds seemingly going to Chicagoans.

That number and the abuse and neglect residents have received from Johnson over the past year have all proven to be too much to bear.

…Johnson wants to hike property taxed with less than two months before the city has to pass a new budget. 

…’You’re gonna protect the undocumented, while you’re gonna allow for the citizens in Chicago to suffer under your, what? Three percent?’

The proposed tax hike would raise homeowners’ property taxes by up to 4 percent and comes as Chicago grapples with a nearly $1 billion budget deficit. 

All 50 City Council members have voted against the tax increase.

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And what had to appall the mayor the worst were all the invocations of Donald Trump’s name from Chicago residents festooned in MAGA red.

WOWSAHS

Did they ever unload on him.

I wouldn’t so much say it was “facing criticism” as “getting ripped a new one.”

Residents let council members know they were being watched and notes taken.

“…We’re gonna know who’s naughty or nice, based on how y’all vote…”

I have no doubt that the council has never in their entire political lives faced anything like that scene. Johnson for sure hasn’t. One lady even dismissed the mayor for being an outsider – “You grew up in Elgin” – when lambasting the feckless city chief executive for how badly he’d underestimated the anger and the backbone of the ‘Southside’ residents.

The pressure and…um…plain speaking must have made quite an impression because every single council member voted the tax measure down. 

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Johnson couldn’t pull one “aye” his way. And the Trump taunting – AY DIOS MIO.

…Facing the prospect of nearly $1 billion missing from next year’s budget, Johnson presented to the City Council what many see as a broken promise: his plan to raise property taxes by $300 million. This proposal, which would have added financial strain to homeowners by increasing their expenses by up to 4%, faced immediate backlash from both the council and local residents. The council’s response was resounding; they unanimously voted against the increase, signaling significant disapproval of Johnson’s financial strategy. Their rejection was more than just procedural; it was deemed historic, considering all 50 members stood firmly against the proposal, calling it largely symbolic yet necessary to forecast new revenue avenues.

Critics pointed fingers at Johnson’s inconsistent actions concerning property taxes, especially when he had previously campaigned on promises to avoid raising them. Local voices were not shy about their discontent. During the City Council’s meetings, residents confronted Johnson directly, expressing their disillusionment, particularly focusing on how his policies seemed to prioritize undocumented immigrants over local citizens. One resident pointedly asked,
“How does it feel to know Trump is back in office right now?” This stark reminder served to underline growing frustrations with the perceived failures of progressive governance under Johnson.

Among those protesting were supporters of former President Donald Trump, who began to connect the dots between Johnson’s approach to immigration and fiscal irresponsibility. While Johnson had hoped his proposal would initiate discussions around ‘serious revenue-raising alternatives’, the community sentiment has leaned toward skepticism and concern over city spending. Tyjuan Sims, another resident, articulated the collective anger, urging,
“The feds need to address you! The DOJ needs to address you!” This chant of frustration highlighted the growing unrest within Chicago, where the fear of financial collapse looms heavily.

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The looming financial collapse can’t possibly be any more precipitous than the nosedive in Johnson’s poll numbers.

Off a cliff.

But they voted for him – there had been a semi-lucid alternative on the ballot at the time.

Both Johnson and Illinois Governor JB (for ‘billionaire’) Pritzker had wailed and moaned spectacularly when Trump won, promising to “protect” their residents from Orange Hitler’s ravishments and authoritarianism.

Judging by the red-garbed MAGA crowd accosting the mayor over his cockamamie financial sleight of hand, no one is worried about Orange Hitler doing them damage. Their eyes are firmly locked on officials in their state.

As they should be. Lord almighty, what a disaster.

Some of the Pritzker/Johnson milestones would have chills running down a, say, Florida resident’s spine and certainly elicit been-there-done-that sympathy from a Californian.

They are all too familiar to folks trapped in progressive hellholes.

…For those Illinois residents naïve enough to blindly accept Pritzker’s hyperbole and inflammatory accusations as wondrous truth-telling, it is essential they consider the conditions Pritzker has wrought for the state over which he serves as governor. These are the conditions that Illinois residents wake up to everyday to that are already adversely impacting their quality of life.

*Currently, Illinois is the highest taxed state in the Union. Residents can expect another round taxes and fees imposed as the state faces a significant budget shortfall over the next five years.

*Accompanying the high taxes, Illinois residents own the third-highest debt per capita in the nation, and it is worsening.

*Locally, the City of Chicago, the economic engine of the Prairie State, has the highest commercial property in the U.S. and Chicago residents pay the highest property taxes, sales taxes, fees and fines in the country. Worse for Chicago homeowners, property taxes are on the cusp of rising substantially.

*By the basic measures of prosperity — poverty rate, homelessness rate, share of unsheltered homeless, labor-force participation rate, homeownership rate, share of executive positions, median annual household income and unemployment rate — Illinois ranks at the bottom of equity.

*Despite Pritzker’s upbeat outlook for the state economy, Illinois has experienced the slowest recovery from COVID and job growth continues to lag in comparison to its Midwestern neighbors.

*Illinois is experiencing the largest exodus of residents in the nation, Chicago’s population has continued to shrink. Among those leaving in droves are Chicago’s black residents — overwhelmingly middle-income families with children — the largest out-migration of any U.S. city in history.

*Though Pritzker dramatically increased state funding to schools and Illinois educators are among the highest paid in the U.S., schools perform abysmally. Pritzker’s response is to support the teachers’ union agenda that moves away from standards and accountability and deny parents school choice.

*Illinois is the only state to eliminate school choice — a position taken by the governor with calamitous consequences for Chicago’s Black and Hispanic pupils — the absence of school choice is found in Pritzker’s desire to appease teachers’ unions.

*Illegal immigrants have taken priority over the needs of residents. As the welfare of poorer residents and homeless continue to be ignored, Pritzker continues to splurge on illegal immigrants, treating them as another aggrieved minority and providing them with benefits that have now exceeded $2.8 billion.

*Chicago remains one of the most violent cities and once again is leading the nation in murders, school-age children murders, and mass shootings. If Chicago were a state it would be second only to California in mass shootings.

*The state’s elimination of cash bail has stripped the law of adequate safeguards to protect residents. A betrayal of the law-abiding, the state’s pre-trial release is returning thousands felons, arrested for violent crimes, to the streets with no witness or victim protection.

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With a “We did it!” laundry list of shameful ruin like that, it’s a wonder that the Chicago council chamber wasn’t awash in crimson and MAGA.

There’s always hope.

Someone who is demonstrably ‘America’s Worst Mayor’…

…might just be able to turn the place red.

If there’s anyone left in the city by the time his term is up.