* WBEZ…
Greg Goldner, the founder of Resolute Public Affairs, is helming Chicago Forward, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that allows donors to shield their identity while contributing to oppose the [Bring Chicago Home] tax. […]
Goldner touted a coalition of business, real estate and labor groups working together to oppose the tax by questioning the credibility of the proposal and painting it as an extension of reportedly low approval ratings of Johnson’s tenure in office that will lead the city in the wrong direction.
“Frankly, Mayor Johnson’s numbers are not very good … That’s before anyone’s run a negative ad against him,” Goldner said, later adding: “The mantra of saying people aren’t paying their fair share. Well, every year you get a tax bill, and you’re paying your fair share every single year, not just when there’s a transaction.”
But [Vaughn Roland, the political director for Bring Chicago Home] discounted the effort to tie Bring Chicago Home solely to Johnson, noting this has been a roughly six-year organizing effort.
“BCH has had a long history that predates this mayor,” he said. “Community organizations have been organizing around this effort for far too long. And it’s time for someone to do something about it. And it just so happens to be Mayor Brandon Johnson.”
You gotta figure the opposition will try to make this a referendum on the wildly unpopular Mayor Johnson as much as it can.
* Also, problems spending money like this WTTW story exposed will probably undermine its passage…
Chicago spent just 29% of the federal relief funds officials promised to use to strengthen the city’s tattered social safety net and provide direct aid to Chicagoans struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of 2023, according to a WTTW News analysis.
* And then there’s this…
Chicago is unifying services for migrants and homeless individuals under one system.
Why it matters: The colliding crises have fueled tensions citywide, but local officials hope a coordinated effort will optimize resources and recast the city’s housing mission as more inclusive.
Maybe, but it will also give Bring Chicago Home opponents an opportunity to inject the migrant issue into their anti-tax campaign: A yes vote shovels more money at migrants.
* Not to mention the Chicagoans running for office and using their opposition to migrants to gain publicity, which feeds the fire. We’ve already talked about 5th House District Democratic challenger Andre Smith and the hype about him from Fox News. Now, check out this story in the National Review…
As a victim-services advocate in Chicago, Zerlina Smith-Members struggles every day to obtain scarce resources and shelter space for victims of violence in the city.
As a black mother and activist on Chicago’s West Side, she can’t help but notice the poor-performing schools, the bad health outcomes, the food deserts, the homelessness, the high taxes, the gangs, and the illegal guns that plague her community.
“It’s just a lot, and it’s overwhelming,” Smith-Members said of the challenges.
That is why Smith-Members, an independent Democrat, is frustrated by the response of her party’s far-left leaders to the influx of migrants who have flooded the city over the last year and a half. In a desire to be “welcoming,” the state under Governor J. B. Pritzker has directed $640 million towards sheltering, feeding, and caring for the migrants, while the city of Chicago under mayor Brandon Johnson has paid out at least $138 million, according to media reports.
Smith-Members is running for Mayor Johnson’s former Cook County Board seat. Like Andre Smith, she’s a perennial candidate, but that won’t stop the hype…
Smith-Members ran for 29th Ward alderman in 2015 and 2019. In 2022, when West Garfield Park nurse and former 28th Ward candidate Beverly Miles challenged Gov. J.B. Pritzker in the Democratic primary, Smith-Members joined the ticket as lieutenant governor before deciding to challenge Preckwinkle in the same primary instead. She was removed from the ballot.
Also, her husband is running for Republican ward committeeperson…
The news release announcing Smith-Members’ candidacy described [her spouse] Members as her campaign manager, said that on the early of morning of Nov. 29, they went to the Office of Cook County Clerk to submit her nominating petitions. When, in a Nov. 30 interview, Austin Weekly News asked Smith-Members about the potential conflict of having a candidate for a Republican office managing a Democratic Primary campaign, she said that “he isn’t my campaign manager any longer.”
- Jerry - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 12:18 pm:
“Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.” President Ronald Reagan
- Just Me 2 - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 12:25 pm:
Tying the Bring Chicago Home campaign to the Mayor’s inabilities to govern seems too insider baseball to me. How many voters will take the time to make all those connections. If I were Goldberg et al I would re-brand Bring Chicago Home for what it really is: a tax on housing, or a “renters tax.”
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 12:27 pm:
===seems too insider baseball to me===
Everybody knows the mayor. Not many know about the issue or will take much time to find out.
- Unanimous Choice - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 12:30 pm:
I support the Bring Chicago Home measure. I don’t trust the mayor to be a good shepherd of the money raised. I could be convinced to vote no.
Low poll numbers, mismanagement of state migrant money, and the lack of transparency from MBJ will make for good ads.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 12:36 pm:
I do not trust this Mayor’s Office with any more money. Who are they going to big a fight with after the Greater Chicago Food Depository?
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 12:40 pm:
==their opposition to migrants==
Exactly what would these people have us do? Let these migrants rot in the street?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 12:48 pm:
===Exactly what would these people have us do?===
That’s beside the point. lol
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 12:52 pm:
===President Ronald Reagan ===
Lost Cook County.
- Jerry - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 1:07 pm:
Agreed, Rich.
- Interested observer - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 1:38 pm:
As a Chicagoan, I’m not opposed to a tax that funds services and housing for homeless people. But I’ve never seen an analysis of where this figure came from, any real specifics of how it’s going to be spent, and why supporters think $100 million of more programs and services will be effective.
- Amalia - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 1:41 pm:
what is inside baseball is knowing who greg goldner is was was with. and so not loving the choice.
- Roman - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 1:45 pm:
Agree with Rich that there is plenty for the opponents to sink their teeth into here, but they better get on their horse. I’ve yet to receive a mailer or see a digital ad on the topic, but I did get a knock on my door from a Bring Chicago Home activist. And a the likely low turnout is sure to help the progressive side.
I’m anxious to see if the construction trades jump in with the biz community to fund the attack (Goldner’s involvement might put that in doubt.) I think it will take that kind of cash to defeat the referendum.
- Just Me 2 - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 1:49 pm:
=== Everybody knows the mayor. Not many know about the issue or will take much time to find out. ===
Point taken. I still wonder if Goldner’s strategy over complicates a simple issue: higher rent.
- Joe Bidenopolous - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 2:24 pm:
=a simple issue: higher rent.=
Not simple. You have to explain why that’s the case, and if you’re explaining…
OTOH, everybody here has an opinion about the Mayor. Just ask.
- the working poor - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 3:25 pm:
= I’ve never seen…any real specifics of how it’s going to be spent =
From the bringchicagohome.org website:
“Funds will be dedicated to permanent affordable housing with supportive services…Housing will be created in the form of housing vouchers, new housing, and rehabilitation to preserve existing housing. Participants will be connected to social services to ensure supports are available to stay housed.”
- Unanimous Choice - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 3:26 pm:
== for what it really is: a tax on housing, or a “renters tax.”==
That’s just not true and likely why they’re not running with that. The university of Chicago did a study a few months ago on BCH and its impact. They found that there won’t be an increase on rent prices.
The study pointed to other issues but rent increases was debunked.
- Shytown - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 3:34 pm:
I’d feel a lot better about BCH if we had more confidence in how this 5th floor would spend it. With that said, even tying this to a very unpopular mayor I don’t think will stop this from passing IMO. On its face its popular and 95% of voter have no idea what it actually is. Goldner will need a lot of cash and a lot of education in a short amount of time to move voters. We’ll see if he can recreate the success of the soda tax.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 3:43 pm:
It’s going to be interesting to see how much of the opposition is going to be
“You think you can trust these guys to spend the money effectively?”
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 3:44 pm:
===will need a lot of cash and a lot of education in a short amount of time===
Agreed. The post isn’t meant to be an obit. Just a warning. The graduated income tax got over 70 percent in the city, so, yeah, it won’t be easy peasy.
- levivotedforjudy - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 4:18 pm:
I’ve always thought that the migrant/homeless/public housing/affordable housing issues should be viewed as connected and I appreciate the irony that suddenly people who never mentioned the homeless in Chicago (which has consisted for years of a disturbing number of Vietnam Veterans) now are in an uproar. I would want to view the arrival of the migrants as a way to finally come up with solutions to help the homeless but I do not trust the ability of my mayor and his team to do it right.
- Just a guy - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 6:13 pm:
“Funds will be dedicated to permanent affordable housing with supportive services…Housing will be created in the form of housing vouchers, new housing, and rehabilitation to preserve existing housing. Participants will be connected to social services to ensure supports are available to stay housed.” That’s a great overview. Now please show us the plan. Please show us where those hundreds of millions - especially when there all those millions that could have been spent to help those rebounding from COVID - are going to go. I know in my business and for all of my business and marketing plans, I have specifics. Generalities are wonderful when you want to start talking about something. If you want me to vote on it and tell you that I want my money to support it, I unfortunately need a little bit more. Especially given, as many have noted in this thread, this particular administration’s track record.
- Da big bad wolf - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 6:20 pm:
=== But I’ve never seen an analysis of where this figure came from, any real specifics of how it’s going to be spent===
That’s because Chicagoans voting for BCH is the first step. Then the city council has to vote on the ways the taxes will be spent.
- low level - Tuesday, Feb 13, 24 @ 10:08 pm:
How is this a “renter’s tax”?
- Da big bad wolf - Wednesday, Feb 14, 24 @ 7:28 am:
=== How is this a “renter’s tax”?===
It’s not. Landlords can only change what the market will bear. Since the majority of rental buildings at any one time are not being bought and sold, they would be the ones that set the market rate, not the few changing hands.