Chicago’s liberal machine is once again showing its true colors: residents are being asked to shoulder steep new tax burdens while city officials promise that everything is on track. The median residential tax bill in the city jumped by double digits this year, the largest percentage increase in decades, and those increases aren’t evenly spread across neighborhoods. Homeowners on the South and West sides — already struggling after years of disinvestment — are seeing the sharpest pain.
Let’s be blunt: this is not an abstract policy debate — these are real families facing bills they can’t afford. In communities like Englewood, North Lawndale, and West Garfield Park the median tax bills rose by staggering amounts, with some neighborhoods seeing increases well above 50 percent. That kind of hit destroys equity, forces long-time homeowners out, and collapses neighborhood stability — the exact opposite of what compassionate governance should protect.
Meanwhile, Mayor Brandon Johnson and his allies pushed a package of new levies aimed at businesses and wealthy properties, including a highly controversial corporate head tax, only to see the finance committee push back. The proposal to charge large employers per worker was sold as targeting corporations, but every conservative economist knows that taxes on employers trickle down to workers and the community. The council’s rebuke shows even some local politicians recognize a job-killing tax is a bad trade for struggling Chicagoans.
But the pain doesn’t stop with property bills — the budget plan includes a grab bag of new revenue streams that hit businesses and ordinary consumers alike. The personal property lease tax is being raised to grab millions from companies relying on cloud services, streaming and cable taxes are up, and small increases like the grocery bag fee are being bumped higher. These are regressive moves dressed up as modern revenue tools, and they squeeze the same working people progressives claim to champion.
Small-business owners — including Black-owned breweries, restaurants, and taverns — are already sounding the alarm that the proposed alcohol and wholesale tax hikes would crush margins and drive customers out of the city. The hospitality sector operates on razor-thin margins, and piling new wholesale levies onto that fragility will cost jobs and close doors, not generate lasting prosperity. If city hall wants thriving neighborhoods, it shouldn’t be strangling the businesses that provide jobs and community anchors.
This is what conservative voters and patriotic citizens have been warning about for years: tax-and-spend policies backed by virtue-signaling politicians end up punishing the most vulnerable communities. Instead of reflexive tax hikes, Chicago needs budgeting discipline, honest prioritization of public safety, and real incentives for businesses to invest on the South and West sides. Those are conservative solutions that actually empower families, rather than making them dependent on a city that keeps taking more.
Hardworking Chicagoans must hold their aldermen and the mayor accountable — not with empty slogans, but at the ballot box and in town halls demanding fiscal common sense. Fight for property tax relief, demand audits of wasteful spending, and insist that any revenue increases be paired with concrete plans for job creation and safer streets. The future of these neighborhoods depends on ending the era of punitive taxation and restoring respect for family budgets and hard work.
