Mayor Brandon Johnson criticizes Pritzker, Dems for not moving on Springfield agenda

Mayor Brandon Johnson pointed out on Thursday with the Democrats of Illinois, including Governor JB Pritzker, on his exceptional list of wishes in Springfield that he has struggled to fill for more than a year now.

Speaking in a panel of the hiding place, the mayor has again castigated heads of state and called them to give Chicago Home Rule Authority to implement new samples because they are not “daring” enough to do it themselves. Then, without appointing him, Johnson seemed to take a blow to Pritzker by comparing the governor with two terms and the possible candidate in the 2028 presidential race for the governor’s political enemy, Republican President Donald Trump.

“It is abandoned from duty, very frankly, to have all this blue power and to make an excuse to explain why we cannot exercise our power. It is no different from my complaint or frankly my frustration towards the president,” said Johnson. “You have democrats in this country or in Illinois who apologize about the reasons why we cannot introduce ourselves to workers, then their cop is” well, mayor Brandon Johnson “. It was the same mayor who made a hunger strike. »»

Johnson argued that Springfield’s reluctance to evolve his request for Chicago public schools to receive $ 1.6 billion more – the objective of the mayor’s white whale, and a little that little think that he can soon reach the lack of appetite in the General Assembly of Illinois in the middle of an austere budget – is not because of the lack of funds. “The money is there,” said Johnson before launching heads of state like lukewarm.

“They have supermajeures in both houses,” said the mayor about the Democrats de l’Illinois. “We occupy the governor’s mansion. Why are we so afraid to defend the workers and the poor? It simply makes sense. It is inadmissible. “

Johnson’s remarks, whom he tried to put paper at the end by insisting that he has a good working relationship with Pritzker despite “the differences in opinion on certain things”, occurred after weeks of increasing attacks to the governor of him and the Chicago Teachers Union. They also coincided with the creation of the two Democratic leaders who made public appearances recently in the face of the Trump administration to send federal troops to Chicago.

Pritzker, for its part, has launched cold water at the request for funding from the CPS: “What CTU and the mayor are talking about, which provides another billion dollars or $ 1.6 billion for Chicago public schools, it simply does not happen. And it is not because we should not last last month. We should try to find the money, but we don’t have these resources today, “said the governor.

The mayor and his ally closest to the world of work have sought additional CPS funding throughout the district budget crisis which exploded a large part of Johnson’s second term.

Faced with a massive financing gap, the Chicago Board of Education put the mayor last week in the 2025-26 budget during a breathtaking vote. The snack points were the mayor’s pressure for a high interest loan of $ 200 million and a commitment to cover a pension payment of $ 175 million for the staff of the non -teacher school.

Johnson argued that the CPS must avoid budget cuts in the middle of the year, and the final expenditure plan of $ 10.25 billion that has been adopted may not be enough to avoid this. But his loan plans were shot by criticism, including certain progressives, and have seen several false starts and stops. To this end, Johnson and the Springfield strategy of the CTU were at the forefront of all their public messages on how the school district leaves this tax situation.

Throughout his town halls on the budget in recent weeks, Johnson has sought to ensure that Pritzker and the General Assembly of Illinois wear the hat on Chicago and the budgetary disorder of CPS, when he distributed his requests for new income. “If they are not going to be daring enough to continue the ultra-rich, then they must give us authority to Chicago to do so, because we are bold enough,” he said at one of the recent events.

Last week, the families of plain workers supported by the CTU also unveiled a budget proposal that would close a billion dollars by restoring the corporate leaders, by receiving payments from universities instead of taxes, by receiving 240 million dollars from tif surpluses and tax technological companies for “data exploration”. The “Babies Before Billionaires” campaign, presented during the Mayor du Mayor town hall, also called to reassign $ 300 million from the Chicago police.

Meanwhile, in a southern town hall last month, Johnson Ally Ald. William Hall shot the Governor on the current plans of the Pritzker administration to rebuild two prisons from Illinois.

“Each representative who supported this Pipeline Pritzker project came out, but we decided to attack those who were fighting to make sure that our children got the best and obtained their fair share,” said Hall, sitting next to Johnson.