CBS Host Pushes Back On Dem Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson As He Tries To Dodge Question On Taxes

CBS News host Vladimir Duthiers pushed back against incoming Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday over the possibility of raising taxes in the city.

Johnson beat Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in a runoff race Tuesday. Vallas repeatedly accused Johnson of wanting to “defund the police,” which Johnson called a “real political goal” on a December 2020 radio show.

Speaking on CBS, Johnson discussed the need to increase community services such as health care and youth employment in an effort to reduce crime, as well as the need for police. He also called for more social workers, counselors and EMTs to assist police.

“It sounds great on paper, but how do you pay for it? Chicago, as you know, is headed toward a major deficit in 2024. You say you’re not going to raise taxes, but you have talked about perhaps other ways to raise money, including property taxes,” Duthiers said. (RELATED: New Chicago Mayor Invokes Trayvon Martin To Defend Old Defunding Police Stance)

“I’m not going to raise property taxes,” Johnson said. “That’s been the lazy form of governance for a very long time in the city of Chicago and, quite frankly, around the country. The words that President Biden indicated in his [State of the] Union address, he said that a teacher and a firefighter should not pay the same tax rate as a millionaire and a billionaire.”

“So you’re not going to raise property taxes, but you will have to raise taxes?”

“Well, what we’re gonna have to do is to find the revenue from individuals that have the means to actually contribute to a safer city,” Johnson said. “Seventy-percent of large corporations in the state of Illinois did not pay a corporate tax.”