Chicago Teachers Union is No. 3 funder of Johnson’s tax hike proposal
The Chicago Teachers Union funneled at least $200,000 into the ballot question Mayor Brandon Johnson claims will raise taxes to help the homeless. With no plan on how the money will reduce homelessness, it could become a slush fund for his CTU friends.
The third-largest financial backer of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s tax hike proposal is none other than his old boss, the Chicago Teachers Union.
The union has funneled at least $200,000 to “Bring Chicago Home,” the ballot committee created to support Johnson’s real estate transfer tax proposal.
CTU’s $200,000 donation is tied with the SEIU HCII, another government union. The next largest contributor has given just $10,000.
The proposal was declared invalid and struck from the ballot by a Cook County judge, but ballots have already been printed and the question will remain on the ballot. An appeal has been filed.
If the proposal passes, CTU’s funding would make Johnson even more beholden to the union than he already is.
Johnson and the city have laid out no details as to how the money would help homeless Chicagoans. Nothing in the ballot language itself lays out a plan. If passed, it would allow the city to raise taxes without binding the city to use the funds generated in any explicit way that guarantees helping the homeless.
That makes CTU’s financial backing of the tax hike proposal all the more alarming. Johnson, a former “legislative coordinator” for CTU, was hand-picked by the union to run for mayor. Johnson already owes the union for bankrolling his way into office. And CTU and its state and national affiliates are the biggest spenders on Chicago politics. Johnson’s inability to distinguish himself from the union backing him makes it likely he will continue pushing CTU’s radical agenda.
Without a commitment to Chicagoans on how the money raised by the real estate transfer tax will be used, CTU could use its power over Johnson and the city to use the funds as a slush fund for its own political purposes.
Fiscal shenanigans are not outside CTU’s normal realm of operation. It uses union members’ dues for its leaders’ political agenda. It has failed to provide required annual audits to members and had to raise its dues by 13% for 2024 – most likely to make up for its financial missteps. Yet it spends less than 17 cents of each dollar representing those members.
The union has shown zero accountability to its members. Chicagoans shouldn’t expect any responsible financial decisions from them, either.
Even outside of CTU’s influence, the city has a poor track record when it comes to helping the homeless. Ald. Ray Lopez, 15th Ward, voted against the plan when the council voted Nov. 7, saying the city already doesn’t know how it spends dollars for homelessness.
“Before we ask for more, we have to show Chicago that we know how to spend what we have. We’re asking for more when we don’t know how to use what we already have,” Lopez said.
If the CTU-backed transaction tax proposal passes, the union would again have propelled Johnson to a personal success, this time helping him enact his top initiative. He would be deeper into CTU’s pocket.
Paid for by Vote No on Chicago Real Estate Tax.