Ask The Mayor: October, 20 2026

Sasha-Ann Simons (0:12)

Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is back in the studio for our monthly series Ask the Mayor. This is when he stops by and answers your questions and ours. And there's a lot to get to today with less time. Ask the Mayor is a bit shorter now in the lead up to the February election, as we bring on candidates running for the city's top job. That said, Chicago's facing a more than $800 million budget deficit for 2027 What's Johnson's plan for closing the gap? Early voting for the midterms is well underway. What's top of mind for the Democratic mayor? Plus, Governor Pritzker is hopeful that the Chicago Bears will remain in Illinois. Does Mayor Johnson see it that way?

Since our last Ask The Mayor segment back in August, Johnson has announced his re-election bid and is now preparing to submit signatures so that he can appear on the ballot yet again. So I began our conversation by asking him, why that choice to run again? Here's Mayor Johnson.

Brandon Johnson (1:16)

Well, listen, I promised to build the safest, most affordable big city in America and that's what we're building here. More affordable homes under my administration, more resources into our public schools under my administration, more young people hired in the history of Chicago under my administration, reopening mental health clinics and we've had the fewest amount of homicides in 60 years and this past summer was the safest summer since 1965

After 30 plus years of malfeasance and negligence, we are now finally prioritizing the values of working people, and our work is not done.

Sasha-Ann Simons (1:51)

Now, speaking of the work, a new NORC poll was released yesterday. The results found 53% of Chicagoans overall disapproved of your job performance, while only 22% approved. Another 25% had no opinion. How concerned does that make you? What does 22% signal to you?

Brandon Johnson (2:13)

Well, look, as mayor of the city of Chicago, it's the joy and the honor of my life outside of, of course, the marriage and children and the Cubs winning the World Series.

You know, there are some folks that are obviously, you know, feeling away about this experience. But it's a moment in time. You know, the number that I'm most concerned about, though, is how many lives are we saving? How many mental health clinics are we reopening?

Every single promise that I've made, I've kept it. And, you know, I'm going to continue to do my part to build the safest, most affordable big city in America. There's no mayor in modern history that can say that they oversaw the city at a time in which, you know, our economy was recovering and violence was going down.

That's my focus. I think about the number of young people that we hired for summer jobs, 33,013. That's more than any other administration in the history of Chicago. I think about the senior that I met the other day ago at his senior home, and how he began to cry because he's been struggling with his mental health for a good portion of his adult life. And he said, thank you, Mayor, for seeing me. Those are the people that I pay close attention to. And I think about the families that now have access to the Hope Center on the west side of Chicago, an investment that has not taken place in 40 plus years in the Austin community. When I think about the San Cofa village in Garfield Park, when I think about the affordable housing units, 5,000 of the affordable homes that we've built have been on the west and south sides of Chicago. I think about the people who will have access to a hospital on the south side of Chicago because we're building one the first time in 100 years. Those are the things that I think about every single day, and I'm going to continue to do my part to build the safest, most affordable big city in America.

Sasha-Ann Simons (4:03)

You will be introducing your 2027 budget proposal tomorrow. I imagine you're unable to give me some specifics today.

Brandon Johnson (4:11)

I could give you some specifics.

SPEAKER_3 (4:12)

Can you share what you can?

Brandon Johnson (4:13)

Listen, I made a commitment to invest in people. This budget is going to continue to do that. We passed the Social Media Amusement Responsibility Tax, the first tax of its kind, on big tech companies. And now that revenue is generating more than what we initially projected. So we'll be able to expand mental and behavioral health care, the PPLT tax, another tax on big corporations that allows for us to continue to make investments in homelessness and housing, something that was not addressed prior to me arriving.