Aldermen are telling Mayor Brandon Johnson “no” on his budget proposal. Now comes the hard part: finding their own answers. Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax hike appears dead on arrival after a City Council majority banded together to call a meeting next Wednesday with plans to vote it down. Little by little, alternatives began to surface Friday as aldermen pressured city department leaders during budget hearings to cut costs and raise revenue. “Looking at this budget as it is, it’s not moving forward, so these ideas need to come to the forefront immediately,” Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, told Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Commissioner Clinée Hedspeth. The North Side aldermen pressed Hedspeth to find ways for her department to bring in more revenue. He pointed to the hidden costs of special events, such as the often overlooked true-up costs the city must make to the company that runs Chicago’s parking meters for money it loses when roads are closed for events like the summer downtown NASCAR race. Ald. Brendan Reilly, 2nd, set his sights on the pricey police overtime tied to such events and said the department must be in the business of making Chicago money. He urged Hedspeth to consider hiking fees paid by production companies to the city for “these pretty large, disruptive, resource-sucking events.” “We are in very, very dire circumstances right now, and we need to change the way we are doing business,” Reilly said. “We have a duty now to pass a budget, and the one the mayor is proposing here is not going to pass.” Aldermen also called on the department to hike right-of-way fees for closing streets and improve scheduling to drive down policing costs. “We need to figure out a way to make sure that we can get money back from these large-scale events,” Finance Committee chair Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, said. The ideas that cropped up as the department faced aldermanic scrutiny Friday are only a few of the many now swirling around City Hall as emboldened aldermen begin to figure out in earnest how they might plug the $300 million hole set to be created by their plans to block the mayor’s proposed property tax hike. Council members are discussing increasing city garbage collection fees and adding “alley use” taxes on private garbage collectors. They have also aired the possibility of fees on “Delta-8” hemp products and hiking dog license fees, among other tweaks. Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th, and Ald. William Hall, 6th, right, talk during the first day of the 2025 budget hearing at City Hall on Nov. 6, 2024. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune) They are weighing cuts too. Some aldermen are lobbying their colleagues to slash the city’s planned $272 million advanced pension payment, a move that could harm Chicago’s credit ratings made by analysts wary of the city’s massively underfunded pension funds. Others have pushed for cuts to the city’s bureaucracy and layoffs or furloughs in its broader workforce. What the City Council might actually land on is unclear. But aldermen and the mayor must make decisions fast: The city would face unclear, but likely painful consequences if it fails to pass a budget by the state mandated Dec. 31 deadline. The time aldermen have to pass a budget was cut this year after Johnson delayed his budget introduction by two weeks. “We are running out of time, because we were put in that position not to have enough time for the negotiation,” Ald. Ruth Cruz, 30th, said. “We have to move fast.” Aldermen do not have the large finance staff or data Johnson and his predecessors have used to help craft budgets, making it difficult for them to quickly figure out the impact of potential efforts to close financial gaps. Johnson’s team has painted large layoffs that would deeply cut city services as the only alternative to a property tax hike, but the mayor must now share more options, Cruz said. “Show us what you have,” she said. “What are those options you have looked at?” [email protected]