IL comptroller: Chicago mayor’s policies chase businesses away

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza says Chicago is chasing job creators away with crippling policies.

Citadel moved 900 workers from Chicago to Miami in 2022, and the financial firm is now expected to leave its former Citadel Center headquarters in a downtown skyscraper for a smaller space a outside the Loop.

Chicago’s downtown office vacancy rate has surged in recent years and reached a record-high of 28% last month.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza says the city’s most crippling policies are the ones that chase job creators away.

“I think that rather than punish our business community for creating jobs which are necessary for people’s quality of life, we should be partnering with our business community and not creating policies that, frankly, chase them away pretty quickly,” Mendoza told The Center Square.

Peak6 Investments moved its corporate headquarters from Chicago to Austin, TX in January 2025.

Boeing, Caterpillar, Morton Salt, TTX and Tyson Foods, among others, announced their departures from Illinois in recent years.

In a social media post last week, Mendoza said hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue left Illinois when Citadel owner Ken Griffin and 900 of his employees left Chicago for Miami three years ago.

Citadel’s latest reported plans come as Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago City Council members wrangle over competing budget proposals.

Last week, Johnson revised his corporate head tax to impact businesses with more than 500 employees instead of those with more than 100. He also raised the monthly tax from $21 per worker to $33.

Mendoza expressed her disapproval of taxing businesses for hiring workers.

“Obviously, I’m strongly opposed to that because it does chase our job creators out of Chicago,” the state comptroller said.

The mayor’s more than $16 billion spending plan also includes an increased cloud tax, a tax on social media and taxes on sports betting and boat mooring.

A group of aldermen passed an alternative tax and revenue package through the city council’s finance committee Tuesday. It remains unclear if the group has enough votes to pass its own budget and override a potential Johnson veto.

Mendoza took note of the city’s refusal to make cuts under the current mayor.

“There is no reason why this city should be moving forward with a budget that is 60% larger than it was in 2019, pre-pandemic,” Mendoza said.

Although much of the opposition to Johnson’s budget plan has focused on the corporate head tax, Mendoza said there is also a big problem with the mayor’s plan for tax increment financing dollars.

The mayor’s budget would sweep about $1 billion of TIF money into Chicago Public Schools.

Citing a community on the city’s South Side, Mendoza said TIF dollars are intended to revitalize neighborhoods.

“Englewood is a perfect example, because they leveraged $10 million worth of TIF to create $50 million in economic development,” Mendoza explained.

The comptroller said Johnson’s short-term fixes will critically damage the city’s potential for economic development.

“That means that neighborhoods that are traditionally underserved, that don’t have anything but vacant lots going for them, are going to continue to stay depressed for decades to come,” Mendoza said.

The comptroller said once a TIF dollar is spent, it can never be spent again.

“That’s a real shame to these communities who are desperate for economic development,” Mendoza said.

The comptroller said that if Chicago continues to receive credit downgrades, it would ultimately affect state revenues.

Mendoza, who is not seeking reelection to comptroller in 2026, said she is seriously considering a run for mayor of Chicago. The comptroller said she would keep talking about issues affecting the city even if she doesn’t run, because they impact her current job and trying to leverage every taxpayer dollar to its maximum impact.

Glenn Minnis contributed to this story.