On Tuesday, far-left former union organizer Brandon Johnson was elected mayor of Chicago, and said that the city’s historic crime crisis, which included 695 homicides in 2022, was a result of large businesses not paying enough in taxes.
According to the Daily Mail, Johnson said, “70 percent of large corporations in the state of Illinois don’t pay a corporate tax. It’s that type of restraint on our budget that has caused the type if disinvestment that has led to poverty, of course that has led to violence.”
The Daily Mail notes that Johnson, who also called for an additional $80 million to be raised for the city by raising taxes, did not “give the source for his claim.”
47-year-old Johnson defeated former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and will replace outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Johnson is a progressive, Bernie Sanders-endorsed Democrat and Vallas was slightly more moderate and was backed by Chicago’s police union.
In an interview with CBS following his election, Johnson said, “I’m not going to raise property taxes, that’s been the lazy form of governance for a long time in the city of Chicago and quite frankly around the country.”
Johnson told CBS that people in Chicago had been “given a false choice” when it came to solving the crime epidemic, and that the focus should be placed on addressing the root causes of criminality.
“The way we do that is by investing in people,” he said. “There’s a direct correlation between youth employment and violence reduction; there’s a tremendous correlation between providing mental healthcare services and reducing crime.”
Chicago‘s total of 695 homicides for 2022 was down from 804 murders in Chicago in 2021, although crime overall rose 37 percent. Theft, burglary, and robbery crimes all increased from 2021. The city has seen a dramatic rise in violent crime since 2020 with a 100 percent increase of fatal shootings between 2020 and 2021.