Chicago blows $640M on migrants – now wants to charge $1.25 fee every time you order socks
Chicago lawmakers—still reeling after blowing nearly $640 million on migrant services—are now hunting for new ways to squeeze cash out of their already-overburdened residents. Their latest bright idea? Charging everyone $1.25 for every package delivered to their homes. Yes, really.
This proposal comes as City Hall scrambles to plug a stunning $1.15 billion budget shortfall, a fiscal disaster created under Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose policies have helped turn the once-great city into a sanctuary-state money pit.
Johnson’s own budget plan—a massive $16.6 billion behemoth—has been met with fierce opposition, especially after his now-infamous proposal for a $21-per-month “head tax” on every employee at companies with 100+ workers. The City Council’s Finance Committee mercifully killed that scheme last month, warning it would chase employers right out of Chicago. (Because apparently losing businesses is now a city tradition.)
With the clock ticking toward the December 31 deadline, a small group of council members is scrambling to create an alternative budget—one that doesn’t include Johnson’s anti-business head tax.
Leading the charge is Alderman Gilbert Villegas, who pitched the new package fee. Instead of taxing corporations, he wants to hit regular residents every time UPS, FedEx, or Amazon rings their doorbell. That’s right—Chicago politicians spent hundreds of millions attracting migrants, and now they want taxpayers to foot the bill for their delivery habits.
But Johnson’s office insists the $1.25 delivery tax would require state approval—a claim Alderman Scott Waguespack outright rejects. According to ABC 7, Waguespack maintains the city can enact the fee without Springfield’s blessing.
And it gets worse.
This same group of aldermen also wants to nearly double the city’s garbage fee, raising it from $9.50 to $20 per month. Sure, seniors would be exempt—but the rest of Chicago gets to pay more for trash pickup that still won’t even cover the city’s actual sanitation costs. Even with the hike, only 55 percent of the garbage system’s expenses would be funded.
Meanwhile, Johnson still plans to jack up taxes on cloud computing and equipment leases—just at a slightly gentler rate than his original 15 percent grab.
Then there’s the mayor’s plan to borrow $449 million just to fund daily operations, adding more than $50 million in interest onto taxpayers’ shoulders. As Alderman Matt O’Shea warned: “If the mayor’s budget proposal is passed, we will most certainly have a downgrade… laying more debt on our children to have to repay.”
Chicago residents know exactly where much of this financial chaos started: the migrant crisis that City Hall embraced with open arms—and open wallets.
Since 2022, more than 50,000 migrants have poured into the city, many arriving on buses sent from Texas after Chicago proudly labeled itself a sanctuary city. Between September 2022 and February, Chicago shelled out $638.7 million in migrant-related vendor contracts—though during March testimony before Congress, Johnson claimed the cost was only about “one percent of the budget,” or $625 million, a number that mysteriously undercuts official records.
Taxpayers also forked over $850,000 just to move some migrants out of the city.
In Washington, Representative Darin LaHood grilled Johnson, telling him flat-out: “You’re putting the interest of illegal immigrants above the interest of taxpayers in Chicago.” Many Chicagoans probably felt the same way.
Johnson’s pro-migrant spending spree has also drawn the attention of the Trump administration. In September, the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midway Blitz, targeting migrants with criminal histories who had gravitated to Illinois because of its sanctuary laws.
So now, after spending hundreds of millions on non-citizens, the city is telling law-abiding residents to pony up more—more for trash, more for cloud services, and yes, more for getting a package delivered.
Chicago doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a priorities problem.
And under Brandon Johnson, taxpayers are learning that the city’s favorite solution to every crisis is to find one more creative way to reach deeper into their pockets.
This proposal comes as City Hall scrambles to plug a stunning $1.15 billion budget shortfall, a fiscal disaster created under Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose policies have helped turn the once-great city into a sanctuary-state money pit.
Johnson’s own budget plan—a massive $16.6 billion behemoth—has been met with fierce opposition, especially after his now-infamous proposal for a $21-per-month “head tax” on every employee at companies with 100+ workers. The City Council’s Finance Committee mercifully killed that scheme last month, warning it would chase employers right out of Chicago. (Because apparently losing businesses is now a city tradition.)
With the clock ticking toward the December 31 deadline, a small group of council members is scrambling to create an alternative budget—one that doesn’t include Johnson’s anti-business head tax.
Leading the charge is Alderman Gilbert Villegas, who pitched the new package fee. Instead of taxing corporations, he wants to hit regular residents every time UPS, FedEx, or Amazon rings their doorbell. That’s right—Chicago politicians spent hundreds of millions attracting migrants, and now they want taxpayers to foot the bill for their delivery habits.
But Johnson’s office insists the $1.25 delivery tax would require state approval—a claim Alderman Scott Waguespack outright rejects. According to ABC 7, Waguespack maintains the city can enact the fee without Springfield’s blessing.
And it gets worse.
This same group of aldermen also wants to nearly double the city’s garbage fee, raising it from $9.50 to $20 per month. Sure, seniors would be exempt—but the rest of Chicago gets to pay more for trash pickup that still won’t even cover the city’s actual sanitation costs. Even with the hike, only 55 percent of the garbage system’s expenses would be funded.
Meanwhile, Johnson still plans to jack up taxes on cloud computing and equipment leases—just at a slightly gentler rate than his original 15 percent grab.
Then there’s the mayor’s plan to borrow $449 million just to fund daily operations, adding more than $50 million in interest onto taxpayers’ shoulders. As Alderman Matt O’Shea warned: “If the mayor’s budget proposal is passed, we will most certainly have a downgrade… laying more debt on our children to have to repay.”
Chicago residents know exactly where much of this financial chaos started: the migrant crisis that City Hall embraced with open arms—and open wallets.
Since 2022, more than 50,000 migrants have poured into the city, many arriving on buses sent from Texas after Chicago proudly labeled itself a sanctuary city. Between September 2022 and February, Chicago shelled out $638.7 million in migrant-related vendor contracts—though during March testimony before Congress, Johnson claimed the cost was only about “one percent of the budget,” or $625 million, a number that mysteriously undercuts official records.
Taxpayers also forked over $850,000 just to move some migrants out of the city.
In Washington, Representative Darin LaHood grilled Johnson, telling him flat-out: “You’re putting the interest of illegal immigrants above the interest of taxpayers in Chicago.” Many Chicagoans probably felt the same way.
Johnson’s pro-migrant spending spree has also drawn the attention of the Trump administration. In September, the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midway Blitz, targeting migrants with criminal histories who had gravitated to Illinois because of its sanctuary laws.
So now, after spending hundreds of millions on non-citizens, the city is telling law-abiding residents to pony up more—more for trash, more for cloud services, and yes, more for getting a package delivered.
Chicago doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a priorities problem.
And under Brandon Johnson, taxpayers are learning that the city’s favorite solution to every crisis is to find one more creative way to reach deeper into their pockets.
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