Chicago Teachers Union protests trash fee hike while its president skips hers

The Chicago Teachers Union is grumbling about a proposed garbage fee hike. Yet union President Stacy Davis Gates has repeatedly failed to pay her own trash bill.

The Chicago Teachers Union has loudly supported Mayor Brandon Johnson’s city budget proposal, which includes a head tax of $21-per-employee on large companies to help fill a nearly $1.2 billion shortfall.

At the same time, CTU’s opposing a budget alternative that includes an increase on garbage fees.

Interesting.

While constantly demanding the “wealthy” to pay their “fair share,” CTU’s president, Stacy Davis Gates, is notorious for repeatedly failing to pay her city water, sewer and trash bills. Despite her $273,105 income, she just can’t seem to pay her home utility bills on time.

Now her union thinks a trash fee increase is a bad idea?

Davis Gates’ past-due bills piled up for over three years and hit nearly $5,700 at one point, an open records request showed in 2024. The city invoked repeated delays in providing her billing information, and Davis Gates paid up just before the information was released to the Illinois Policy Institute.

Then, in July 2025, she was again behind by over $1,000.

Taking to social media, CTU framed a panel discussion among aldermen Jason Ervin, Jessie Fuentes, Matt O’Shea and Samantha Nugent as a boxing match, dubbing the exchange of ideas a “budget battle.”

CTU has made its stance on the budget known. Its president has made it clear what she thinks about a wealthy Chicagoan’s responsibility to pay her city bills.

Now it is up to the Chicago City Council to pass a budget by Dec. 31 that should focus on structural reform to correct years of financial mismanagement and foster long-term economic growth.