As Mayor Brandon Johnson trumpeted a new working group this week to tackle the city’s budget problems, half the aldermen invited to join were already hedging.
Out of the eight City Council members Johnson initially asked to be a part of the task force that will be charged with making far-reaching budget recommendations, four had not accepted as of Thursday morning, the Tribune has learned.
Three cited a lack of trust that their budget concerns would be taken seriously, while another was concerned the group could be more symbolic than productive.
Though working groups often do not possess actual decision-making power, Johnson’s Monday rollout of the new body of aldermen, mayoral staffers, business and labor leaders and community groups was pitched as a means to ensure “diverse voices have a seat at the table,” ahead of what is likely to be a difficult 2026 budget for the mayor to pass. But behind the scenes, that seat appeared to be a double-edged sword to several invitees.
Northwest Side Ald. Ruth Cruz, 30th, told the Tribune on Wednesday she declined the invitation because she believes the best way for her to shape the city’s budget is from outside the mayor’s group.
“While I appreciate the consideration, I’m concerned that this group may be more about appearances than a genuine desire for input,” said the freshman alderman, who has often voted with Johnson but recently put more distance between herself and the mayor. “We have seen it for quite some time. Input has been provided and the administration decides to continue with their original plan.”
Ald. Jessie Fuentes, another progressive, said she has not yet accepted a spot on the group but avoided pinning the delay on misgivings with the Johnson administration. Instead, she said she wants to see who else will be on board and stressed that invitees could also be considering opting out because of the time commitment, while some other aldermen might not make meaningful additions because they “just want to see this administration fail.”
“It has to be a serious table, not a symbolic one, so I want to make sure that folks that are being invited have the capacity to do the work,” Fuentes, 26th, said.
Still, it was a rare moment of public hesitancy from the Humboldt Park alderman. Both Cruz and Fuentes are part of a new class of progressive aldermen elected two years ago under the banner of the most left-leaning and diverse City Council in modern times. Two years later, trepidation likely swirls among many of those first-termers over their path to reelection in 2027.
In a Thursday statement, Johnson spokesperson Cassio Mendoza noted that aldermen were publicly demanding more involvement with the budget process, and “we are doing that through this working group.”
“If Aldermen decline to participate, it speaks to the fact that this will be a challenging budget, given the threats from the federal government, coupled with rising pension and debt obligations,” Mendoza wrote. “The Mayor’s Office has extended an invitation to several individuals to be part of the solution to these challenges. It is understandable that some Aldermen may be hesitant to take on such a difficult challenge.”
Johnson’s Monday rollout of the working group entailed signing an executive order creating the body as well as directing his Office of Budget and Management to make a “comprehensive” review of all city spending. Mendoza’s Thursday statement added that the working group has “received overwhelmingly positive feedback from invitees.”
By including a wide swath of city leaders, the mayor likely hopes to avoid shouldering all the blame for any unpopular solutions to the city’s fiscal woes, which could include tax increases, layoffs or service cuts.
Last summer, Budget Director Annette Guzman forecast a 2026 budget gap of $1.12 billion, a number she said Monday was “mitigated” by the new taxes and fees City Hall imposed in December. But the challenge Chicago faces could grow by orders of magnitude with President Donald Trump threatening to cut $3 billion in federal funding to the city.
In fact, following weeks of market fluctuations over Trump’s tariffs, the city’s pension funds lost $1 billion, a source in the mayor’s office said.
“We essentially need to do more with less,” Johnson told reporters Monday.
The 2025 budget cycle was one of City Hall’s most disorganized and tense in years, with the mayor clinching a close vote in mid-December as aldermen warned that he needs to work better with them next time. In fact, 27 of them signed a letter demanding more say: “This is a moment where both history and the public demand that we do better, and we believe that is absolutely possible, but it requires true collaboration.”
Johnson retorted in a news conference that month, “There’s not an alder that doesn’t have access to me or my team. Not one.”
To get the needed 26 out of 50 votes to pass his next budget, Johnson will need both to sustain backing from an increasingly apprehensive Progressive Caucus and win buy-in from moderates. The ongoing mixed support from that first bloc — his most ideologically aligned — signals concern among progressives that being tied to the mayor could hurt them politically.
Two politically middle-of-the-pack aldermen — Alds. Matt O’Shea and Timmy Knudsen — are so far not accepting their invitations to join the new working group.
Knudsen, 43rd, said Wednesday he hasn’t ruled it out. Before he joins, the Lincoln Park moderate wants Johnson’s administration to support his bid to amend the $830 million infrastructure bond the City Council passed in February.
Knudsen wants Johnson’s team to change the controversial plan’s repayment structure to add small early payments. The switch would cut down on back-loaded debt to eventually save the city over $200 million, he said.
“Basically, I need to see in good faith that they’re interested in making decisions such as the ones in this amendment to the bond before I then in good faith go support that budget working group,” he said. “My time right now, as it relates to the budget, is best spent on this amendment. … We’ve got to stop thinking about just the next three years.”
O’Shea, 19th, served as one of 10 “budgeteers” selected by the mayor’s intergovernmental affairs team last summer to make suggestions on the 2025 budget. “It points to a larger problem,” The Southwest Side council veteran said of the rejections. “Trust.”
“I was a part of this process last year,” O’Shea said. “It was a very frustrating experience for me. I felt that ideas weren’t considered, and I felt that things that I was told were going to happen didn’t happen.”
The four City Council members out of the initial eight Johnson tapped to join who have so far accepted are Alds. Pat Dowell, Jason Ervin, David Moore and William Hall, they told the Tribune. Johnson previously appointed Dowell, Ervin and Hall to critical roles in shaping this year’s budget.
Moore, a South Side alderman frequently at odds with the mayor, touted the “independent voice” he brings to the group. Though he suspects some of the people who rejected the offer might perceive the mayor as a “lame duck,” he has faith Johnson’s new effort is a serious bid to find a fiscal path forward, he said.
“I think this mayor is looking for people who care and are gonna try to do the right thing … and not be obstructionist,” Moore said. “If you’re not at the table, then you’re on the menu.”
Ervin, Johnson’s Budget Committee chair, said this is an unprecedented opportunity to work with a variety of city leaders, and “why anyone wouldn’t want to participate in that is beyond me.”
“I think what will probably happen is that people will wish they were at the table that may have been invited to the table,” he said. “I’d rather be at the table trying to craft it than having something dictated to me.”
After the first batch of invites, a Johnson official also asked Ald. Mike Rodriguez, 22nd, if he wanted to participate. Rodriguez has accepted and plans to “bring a labor perspective,” he said.
Of eight aldermen Mayor Brandon Johnson initially asked to join the budget task force, four had not accepted as of Thursday morning.
As Mayor Brandon Johnson trumpeted a new working group this week to tackle the city’s budget problems, half the aldermen invited to join were already hedging.
Out of the eight City Council members Johnson initially asked to be a part of the task force that will be charged with making far-reaching budget recommendations, four had not accepted as of Thursday morning, the Tribune has learned.
Three cited a lack of trust that their budget concerns would be taken seriously, while another was concerned the group could be more symbolic than productive.
Though working groups often do not possess actual decision-making power, Johnson’s Monday rollout of the new body of aldermen, mayoral staffers, business and labor leaders and community groups was pitched as a means to ensure “diverse voices have a seat at the table,” ahead of what is likely to be a difficult 2026 budget for the mayor to pass. But behind the scenes, that seat appeared to be a double-edged sword to several invitees.
Northwest Side Ald. Ruth Cruz, 30th, told the Tribune on Wednesday she declined the invitation because she believes the best way for her to shape the city’s budget is from outside the mayor’s group.
“While I appreciate the consideration, I’m concerned that this group may be more about appearances than a genuine desire for input,” said the freshman alderman, who has often voted with Johnson but recently put more distance between herself and the mayor. “We have seen it for quite some time. Input has been provided and the administration decides to continue with their original plan.”
Ald. Jessie Fuentes, another progressive, said she has not yet accepted a spot on the group but avoided pinning the delay on misgivings with the Johnson administration. Instead, she said she wants to see who else will be on board and stressed that invitees could also be considering opting out because of the time commitment, while some other aldermen might not make meaningful additions because they “just want to see this administration fail.”
“It has to be a serious table, not a symbolic one, so I want to make sure that folks that are being invited have the capacity to do the work,” Fuentes, 26th, said.
Still, it was a rare moment of public hesitancy from the Humboldt Park alderman. Both Cruz and Fuentes are part of a new class of progressive aldermen elected two years ago under the banner of the most left-leaning and diverse City Council in modern times. Two years later, trepidation likely swirls among many of those first-termers over their path to reelection in 2027.
In a Thursday statement, Johnson spokesperson Cassio Mendoza noted that aldermen were publicly demanding more involvement with the budget process, and “we are doing that through this working group.”
“If Aldermen decline to participate, it speaks to the fact that this will be a challenging budget, given the threats from the federal government, coupled with rising pension and debt obligations,” Mendoza wrote. “The Mayor’s Office has extended an invitation to several individuals to be part of the solution to these challenges. It is understandable that some Aldermen may be hesitant to take on such a difficult challenge.”
Johnson’s Monday rollout of the working group entailed signing an executive order creating the body as well as directing his Office of Budget and Management to make a “comprehensive” review of all city spending. Mendoza’s Thursday statement added that the working group has “received overwhelmingly positive feedback from invitees.”
By including a wide swath of city leaders, the mayor likely hopes to avoid shouldering all the blame for any unpopular solutions to the city’s fiscal woes, which could include tax increases, layoffs or service cuts.
Last summer, Budget Director Annette Guzman forecast a 2026 budget gap of $1.12 billion, a number she said Monday was “mitigated” by the new taxes and fees City Hall imposed in December. But the challenge Chicago faces could grow by orders of magnitude with President Donald Trump threatening to cut $3 billion in federal funding to the city.
In fact, following weeks of market fluctuations over Trump’s tariffs, the city’s pension funds lost $1 billion, a source in the mayor’s office said.
“We essentially need to do more with less,” Johnson told reporters Monday.
The 2025 budget cycle was one of City Hall’s most disorganized and tense in years, with the mayor clinching a close vote in mid-December as aldermen warned that he needs to work better with them next time. In fact, 27 of them signed a letter demanding more say: “This is a moment where both history and the public demand that we do better, and we believe that is absolutely possible, but it requires true collaboration.”
Johnson retorted in a news conference that month, “There’s not an alder that doesn’t have access to me or my team. Not one.”
To get the needed 26 out of 50 votes to pass his next budget, Johnson will need both to sustain backing from an increasingly apprehensive Progressive Caucus and win buy-in from moderates. The ongoing mixed support from that first bloc — his most ideologically aligned — signals concern among progressives that being tied to the mayor could hurt them politically.
Two politically middle-of-the-pack aldermen — Alds. Matt O’Shea and Timmy Knudsen — are so far not accepting their invitations to join the new working group.
Knudsen, 43rd, said Wednesday he hasn’t ruled it out. Before he joins, the Lincoln Park moderate wants Johnson’s administration to support his bid to amend the $830 million infrastructure bond the City Council passed in February.
Knudsen wants Johnson’s team to change the controversial plan’s repayment structure to add small early payments. The switch would cut down on back-loaded debt to eventually save the city over $200 million, he said.
“Basically, I need to see in good faith that they’re interested in making decisions such as the ones in this amendment to the bond before I then in good faith go support that budget working group,” he said. “My time right now, as it relates to the budget, is best spent on this amendment. … We’ve got to stop thinking about just the next three years.”
O’Shea, 19th, served as one of 10 “budgeteers” selected by the mayor’s intergovernmental affairs team last summer to make suggestions on the 2025 budget. “It points to a larger problem,” The Southwest Side council veteran said of the rejections. “Trust.”
“I was a part of this process last year,” O’Shea said. “It was a very frustrating experience for me. I felt that ideas weren’t considered, and I felt that things that I was told were going to happen didn’t happen.”
The four City Council members out of the initial eight Johnson tapped to join who have so far accepted are Alds. Pat Dowell, Jason Ervin, David Moore and William Hall, they told the Tribune. Johnson previously appointed Dowell, Ervin and Hall to critical roles in shaping this year’s budget.
Moore, a South Side alderman frequently at odds with the mayor, touted the “independent voice” he brings to the group. Though he suspects some of the people who rejected the offer might perceive the mayor as a “lame duck,” he has faith Johnson’s new effort is a serious bid to find a fiscal path forward, he said.
“I think this mayor is looking for people who care and are gonna try to do the right thing … and not be obstructionist,” Moore said. “If you’re not at the table, then you’re on the menu.”
Ervin, Johnson’s Budget Committee chair, said this is an unprecedented opportunity to work with a variety of city leaders, and “why anyone wouldn’t want to participate in that is beyond me.”
“I think what will probably happen is that people will wish they were at the table that may have been invited to the table,” he said. “I’d rather be at the table trying to craft it than having something dictated to me.”
After the first batch of invites, a Johnson official also asked Ald. Mike Rodriguez, 22nd, if he wanted to participate. Rodriguez has accepted and plans to “bring a labor perspective,” he said.
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