The state of Illinois is the project’s largest funder, committing roughly $700 million. That funding includes environmental remediation, construction of a cryogenic plant and direct support for organizations intended to anchor the hub in South Chicago. Cook County has also committed $20 million.

Chicago requires government employees to reside in the city, and Johnson affirmed that Lee is his full-time staffer and a Chicago resident. However, a Jan. 23 filing from Texas Majority PAC listed Lee as its campaign treasurer with a

“I’ve provoked this conversation for some time – the millionaire’s tax, the digital ad tax, these are progressive tax proposals that could help provide real relief to working people across the city of Chicago and, quite frankly, across the country,” Johnson said. “That’s what’s important in this moment, that we are providing tax relief for working people, critical services for working people, that we’re providing critical services for the city and the state.”

Chicago aldermen advanced a proposal to give the Civilian Office of Police Accountability authority to investigate violations of the Welcoming City Ordinance. Mayor Brandon Johnson said, “My team is working overtime to locate measures that I could use through my executive authority to not just hold people accountable, but to ensure there is a mechanism in which that can take place. So we’ll continue to explore all options and take a deep look into what we can do to not just investigate, but to prosecute.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson was asked if his office was coordinating protests and violence against federal law enforcement. “To not protest in this moment would be a derelict of duty, particularly at a time when we see the rise of tyranny and fascism that threatens the sensibility of our humanity,” Johnson said.

“By splitting its ‘advance’ pension payment, Chicago is inadvertently telling credit rating agencies, residents and city workers that its ability to manage pension obligations is becoming less certain. That points toward looming pension insolvency and a tipping point for Chicago city finances.”

“Now (Cook County Board President Toni) Preckwinkle is promoting token relief programs that offer little real help. The county’s Guaranteed Income Program provides $500 a month to just 3,250 residents out of more than 450,000 eligible households. The new Homeowners Relief Fund will distribute $1,000 grants to roughly 14,000 homeowners out of more than 1.2 million, while offering nothing to renters whose costs rise alongside property taxes.”

“Even Johnson’s own progressive coalition is fracturing, with visible cracks between the unions that bankrolled his first run. The ‘seismic rewriting of the status quo’ the left bragged about in 2023 now looks more like a failed experiment, one that the old Chicago political class is eager to declare over.”

“There was no replacement system ready. No transition plan. No meaningful consultation with frontline officers. The decision was made first, and the justification was crafted afterward. That is not leadership. That is ideology masquerading as policy.”

From 2013 to 2023, Chicago’s tech sector added 106,000 direct tech jobs, according to the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. This represents about 8 percent of the city’s workforce. The tech sector has also created 147,000 multiplier jobs. Illinois’ information sector has added 5,800 jobs in the past 12 months, leading the nation.

The final budget includes “only a handful of efficiencies and cost savings” and places the burden “entirely on taxpayers, leaving labor completely off the hook for sharing the burden,” the report states. The final spending plan will “allow the city to eke out another year, but ultimately leaves the city in the same place” next year.

“By eliminating charters (schools), capping their enrollment, and undermining selective-enrollment schools, CTU is engaging in educational redlining — trapping the city’s poorest families in the weakest schools with no way out. It is segregation in modern form, not by law but by policy.”