City Council members finally stand up to a Chicago mayor

It’s a good thing Mayor Johnson doesn't have Mayor Daley's City Council.

From his first election in 1955 until his death in 1976, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (Richard I) had a City Council to live for. With virtually no opposition except independent 5th Ward Ald. Leon Despres, Daley ruled over Chicago like a Soviet-style politburo chief. Whatever budget Daley wanted, he got. Fortunately, he was determined to keep property taxes manageable.

Forty-eight years on, Mayor Brandon Johnson doesn't have a compliant City Council but one determined to protect beleaguered Chicago taxpayers from Johnson, a profligate spender. Instead of making large, sensible cuts to a vastly bloated city payroll, he proposed a huge $300 million tax increase to help close the near billion-dollar initial budget gap. But over half the Council forced Johnson to pair back his proposed increase to $150 billion, then to $68.5 million, and finally to no tax hike at all.

Bravo, City Council, and raspberries for you, Mayor Johnson. On day 1 as mayor, Johnson's job was to assess a massively overstaffed City Hall weighed down by a large increase in full-time employees since just before COVID hit. Those new hires were financed by the U.S. American Rescue Plan. That dough is gone, but the excess employees are still there, exploding Chicago’s budget deficit.

When Daley could count on nearly every aldermanic vote, being mayor sure was lots of fun. Not so for Mayor Johnson, who can’t even muster 26 of 50 votes to pass his confiscatory budget.

Mayor Johnson means well with his progressive agenda to uplift Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. All Chicagoans with goodwill support that effort. But Johnson must not forget "Joe Taxpayer," whose needs must also be considered. Johnson has yet to learn the lesson that governance is the art of the possible — not the impossible.

Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn

Council members get it right

I loved the front-page headline on Saturday, "Council Revolt," as alderpersons decided to do what they were elected to do for the first time in, well, I'm not sure how long. A more fitting headline would be, "Council Does Their Job, Finally."

Mark Weiher, Lake View

Remember when all businesses accepted cash?

Has it occurred to anyone that one reason for the growing problem of credit card debt is the increasing number of businesses and services that refuse to accept cash? Small everyday expenses — a cup of coffee here, a parking garage or parking meter fee there, a sandwich for lunch or a beer on Saturday night — can add up rapidly.

In recent weeks, I have had to use a credit card for each of the expenses I just mentioned because the venues (or parking meters) had gone "cashless." All businesses and services should be legally required to accept "real" money. If people don't want to go in debt, they shouldn't have to.

David G. Whiteis, Humboldt Park

Servers, bartenders have no appetite to lose tip credits

Just six months after the city of Chicago began eliminating the tip credit, national activist organizations like One Fair Wage are pushing to bring the policy statewide.

Here’s the catch: This isn’t something tipped workers want.

The Legislature tried to bring a bill forward earlier this year to eliminate the tip credit, a system that enables servers and bartenders to earn a base wage that is lower than the state minimum wage, so long as tips earn them at least the regular minimum wage or more.

Servers and bartenders have protested the proposal, claiming it would result in thousands of lost jobs and would cause them to bring home less money per paycheck. The bill subsequently failed in the state House after receiving bipartisan opposition.

A survey of hundreds of local tipped workers further confirmed their opposition. In fact, 87% of tipped workers in Illinois favor preserving the tip credit. The survey reported that 84% of Illinois employees are currently earning at least $20 an hour across the state — with some earning as high as $40 an hour because of their tips. That’s well above the new statewide minimum wage of $15 an hour.

The opposition isn’t unique to Illinois. In November, Massachusetts resoundingly rejected a ballot question to eliminate the tip credit. Additional efforts to eliminate the tip credit have failed from Ohio to Maryland. A national survey of tipped workers also showed that 9 in 10 workers want to keep the system the way it is.

Servers and bartenders work hard to make sure their customers are happy. The Legislature shouldn’t punish them by listening to national activist organizations who think they know better than actual workers.

Any bill to eliminate the tip credit should be dead on arrival.

Rebekah Paxton, research director, Employment Policies Institute

No pardons for state offenses

The average reader or viewer of the news thinks President Biden’s latest round of clemencies (pardons and commutations) affects those convicted of crimes, no matter the jurisdiction of conviction.

However, the president’s constitutional clemency power is limited to “Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States.” Thus, the clemency power does not extend to those convicted of state offenses.

The media, especially print media, needs to make clear in their reporting the above distinction.

Dennis Dohm, retired judge, Oak Lawn