WATCH: Pritzker ‘absolutely, foursquare opposed’ to Chicago mayor’s head tax

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The governor of Illinois says he is against the Chicago mayor’s plan to impose a head tax on employers.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2026 budget proposal includes a monthly tax of $21 per employee on businesses with 100 workers or more.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he is “absolutely, foursquare opposed” to a head tax for Chicago.

“It penalizes the very thing that we want, which is, we want more employment in the city of Chicago,” Pritzker said.

The governor spoke Tuesday at an event hosted by The Economic Club of Chicago, where Pritzker is a longtime member and previously served on the club’s board.

Pritzker said he did not know enough details to offer comment on Johnson’s proposed cloud computing tax, but he spoke firmly in opposition to the head tax.

“It makes it very hard to attract companies outside of Chicago to come into Chicago and harder for companies that are in Chicago to stay,” Pritzker said.

Chicago is facing a budget deficit of $1.15 billion. Pritzker said there are three knobs you can turn to balance a budget.

“One of them is you can cut expenditures. Another one is you can raise taxes, raise revenues that way. The third one, and this is the one I prefer, is grow the economy, because your revenues increase if you grow the economy. It helps you pay for the things you think really matter,” the governor said.

The Illinois Policy Institute says Pritzker has enacted over 50 tax hikes since he took office in 2019.