The mayor explicitly said she was against a "LaSalle Street tax" on financial transactions and the reinstatement of the corporate head tax that Mayor Rahm Emanuel eliminated by 2014. Under that version of the tax, companies with 50 or more employees earning at least $4,300 every three months paid $4 per month per employee. It brought in roughly $23 million a year, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Under a proposal from Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, businesses with more than 50 employees earning at least $1,000 every three months would pay $35 per month per employee. There would be carve-outs to exempt employees who live in the city’s most violent areas.

“Chicago’s budget deficit is in part caused by a lack of political will to tax the wealthy,” Sanchez said in a statement, pegging the potential annual revenue of this new head tax at $100 million. “Chicago’s working families have borne the brunt of years of austerity budgets, and now it is time to find bold solutions that require the wealthy to pay their fair share for the city we need.”

A separate proposal from Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, would follow in the footsteps of some other cities that negotiate a payment in lieu of taxes—or PILOT—from nonprofit institutions that traditionally receive exemptions on many taxes.

Boston, Providence, R.I., and New Haven, Conn., have PILOT agreements with major tax-exempt schools, hospitals and cultural institutions that call for them to make a voluntary payment to the city, in cash or through community programs, to offset the cost of city services they consume. Boston’s is based on an institution's tax-exempt property value.

Taylor said her idea was aimed at large institutions that have displaced black Chicagoans, including hospitals like the University of Chicago, Rush University and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“The University of Chicago has not only taken over Hyde Park, but also Woodlawn. Rush took over a lot of the West Side; same thing with UIC,” Taylor said. “Historically those have been black communities, and they force folks out.”

“This is just the start, just a resolution to start,” Taylor says.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa, 35th, has also introduced an ordinance concerning the city’s hotel accommodations tax. A progressive coalition Rosa belongs to proposes hiking the hotel tax to 7.5 percent from 4.5 percent, arguing it would net the city $75 million in annual revenue.



The current hotel tax is on track to generate $45.6 million in 2019, according to the city’s 2020 budget forecast.

Bob Reiter, the president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, an umbrella organization for local unions, came out against the proposal, saying Rosa's proposed rate would bring Chicago hotels up to the top tier of the costliest tax rates for cities, hitting convention business. "I'm well aware of the implications of a hotel tax. I work with Unite Here," Reiter said, referring to the labor group that represents many hotel employees. "I sat with them during the strike. I work with Choose Chicago. I used to be on the board of McCormick Place."

A bigger hotel tax would draw convention business to more affordable locations like Orlando, Fla. It's "gonna be regressive" and "crush" the ability to grow the city's union workforce, hitting the wages of women and people of color who work in hotels, Reiter said.

Lightfoot has said she wants some of that money to go to help local artists, but earlier this year she shied away from calling for an additional hike to the current rate, telling the Sun-Times, “Increasing it is not gonna help our entertainment and hospitality industries,” and tourism has “gotta continue to be huge.”

Other items that were introduced to the City Council today, and referred to committee for future action:

• Lightfoot’s marijuana zoning: While staying mum on the potential rate the city might tax future recreational marijuana sales or where users might be able to smoke in bars or lounges, Lightfoot’s administration introduced its first zoning restrictions on where dispensaries could be located. She says her bottom line is safe consumption for adults, and that the city can “expand wealth and social equity” and “receive needed tax dollars” while letting local businesses thrive. More from Crain’s Greg Hinz and John Pletz.

• Reparations commission: Noting 2019 marks the 400th anniversary of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Race Riot and the 50th anniversary of the death of Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton, aldermen and former mayoral candidate Willie Wilson are pushing for creation of a 16-member reparations commission to consider ways to close racial gaps in home ownership, education, health care and government contracts. “This is not where we’re trying to give people a check. I’m talking about us repairing the psyche and socioeconomic status of descendants of enslaved Africans,” said sponsor Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th. Lightfoot said it was “a conversation that should be had.”

• Senior housing: 16 aldermen have signed onto a new proposed Senior Housing Ordinance. It calls on extra inspections for senior housing buildings to make sure they are complying with city laws and elevator and safety codes. The ordinance “will work to keep seniors living safely in their building by requiring safety features like grab bars, maximum temperature requirements, available social services and the right to organize free of harassment and retaliation, all of which are not currently mandated by law,” the Jane Addams Senior Caucus said in a statement. The Better Government Association reported on a lack of inspections at Chicago Housing Authority buildings that left residents who relied on elevators stuck inside them or waiting at length for elevators to arrive at upper floors. Aldermen passed a measure to mandate that building owners give seniors more notice and help finding alternative places to stay when they are displaced by renovations or rehabilitations in large affordable housing buildings.

• COFA changes: The Council Office of Financial Analysis, which is intended to be an expert source for aldermen on Chicago finances and spending, appears headed for change. Until recently, the office had only one staffer and no leader. It’s now up to two analysts but is still lacking an executive director heading into a crucial budget season. Budget Chairman Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, has introduced legislation to make appointing the organization’s leader and publicizing their reports easier.