>> Negotiations over Chicago's Twenty-twenty 6 budget are coming down to the wire with no easy fix is in sight.

Major parts of Mayor Brandon Johnsons, 16.6 billion dollar budget for 2026 remain in flux.

Even as officials scheduled crucial vote on the spending plan for Monday.

So are headed.

Sharon joins us now with more.

Heather, so even as these departmental budget hearings are set to wrap on Thursday, there's still no clear consensus on the bulk of the mayor's proposal to tax the city's wealthiest residents and biggest bombs to the tune of 617 million dollars.

Where does the debate stand?

>> Well, older people had hoped to a report from consulting firm, Ernst and Young would give them a road map out of this quagmire to detail ways to make cuts.

That would not impact city services.

But that report would only make changes that would result in significant savings for the city in future years.

Leaving the older people forced to decide whether to impose a $21 per month per employee tax on the city's largest firm or make deeply unpopular cuts.

As Budget Committee Chairman Al Durham, NH Jason Urban often says everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to So some city council members they have called for at least some of those tax hikes to be replaced by cuts.

>> Here's the mayor responding to those calls on Monday morning.

Of course, this is after that.

First snowfall of the season.

>> We hear a lot of calls for cuts.

>> And people like to refer to them as efficiencies.

But that folks get real quite weak, asked them to provide some of the specifics.

Chicagoans do not want to see our snowplowing reduced.

They do not want to see less workers out there working in the night so that their mornings can be better.

>> Heather, why are officials finding it so hard to reduce city spending?

>> What no one has propose cutting even a single dollar from the proposed 2.1 billion dollar budget for the Chicago Police Department.

And that accounts for one-third of the entire discretionary fund, the city Council gets to decide how to spend.

>> Add in the other public safety departments you talking about half of that discretionary fund without with putting all of that money off limits.

Significant carts are cuts are hard to come by.

So the federal government shutdown over, but the agreement to reopen the federal government.

It blew an unexpected 10 million dollar hole in the mayor's budget plan.

What happened?

Well, Mayor Johnson wanted to tax the sale of intoxicating hemp products.

2 $1 per item and ban the sale to those under 21.

But the bill signed by President Donald Trump on Wednesday fans that entire industry making it unlikely the city is going to see that 10 million dollars any time And we know last year's budget negotiations stretched deep in December.

Is that going to happen again?

we'll know more on Monday when the administration is scheduled to crucial votes by to city council committees.

They have the votes food.

If they don't, they'll delay, which means that if they don't maybe the budget will be adopted by Thanksgiving almost a month earlier than last year.

All Sharon, you'll have your eyes on it for us.

Thanks so much.