>> Members of Chicago's City Council return to city Hall today after a weeklong Thanksgiving break without a clear path to a deal on the 2025 budget time is running short for officials to come up with a plan that can win the support of the majority of older people as well as Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Earlier today, Johnson told reporters he was confident a deal can be reached.

>> I get the noise around my administration.

I'm doing it differently.

And I know it feels a certain way, but I'm doing it better.

We'll have a balanced budget that invests in people.

>> Our Heather Sharon joins us now for a look at how Johnson lost control of negotiations over the city's budget.

Heather?

So for weeks, Johnson has said that he will not accept a budget that cut services or lays off city workers.

Today, though, he said nothing has changed.

Let's listen.

>> I'm going to hold the line remain firm that I made a commitment to invest in people.

And that's exactly what I purpose to do.

And that's what I will continue to do to invest in people, particularly in neighborhoods that have historically been neglected, marginalized quite frankly, just >> And Heather State law says that the city has until the end of the year to pass a budget.

29 days to go.

How did we get here?

Well, it started with a massive budget deficit 982 million dollars in the centerpiece of Johnson's plan to fill that gap with a 300 million dollar property tax hike, which would have been the second largest in Chicago history and the largest since 2016 that was dismissed immediately, not just by Johnson's critics on the city council, but also his allies who are worried that an increase of that side with fuel gentrification and push longtime residents out of their home.

So with a fractured progressive caucus that meant that Johnson could not marshaled the support over the conservative members of the City council and push his proposal over the finish line.

That meant he had to go back to square one even after delaying his budget address for 2 weeks over the objection of some of his closest allies on the city council a long road fish to get Johnson has several times referred to himself as, quote, collaborator in chief and that he was approaching these negotiations in a different way than any other Chicago mayor.

>> Breakdown his tactics, chorus.

Well, under mayors, Richard M Daily and Rahm Emanuel, all of these budget negotiations took place behind closed doors away from the prying eyes of reporter.

So once the mayor proposed budget, it was a done deal and there was typically a 49 to one vote approving it with very little public chaos.

All of those negotiations, as I said, took place away from the public.

Johnson says that it will serve Chicago and is not in the spirit of democracy.

He's saying we're going to do this in public.

It might feel a little bit messy, but we're going to get to a better place once we get there.

And I'm preside over at all as the collaborator in chief, right?

So he he's appeared to take a new approach today, declining to detail specific proposals as budget he made to older people just 2 weeks, as you said, after reducing his property tax hike proposal from 300 down to 150 Million.

Is this an admission that what he had been doing isn't working?

I think so.

Because it was the second time the city council had basically looked at a proposal for a property tax hike.

And this time quietly said no, unlike the very public, 50 to 0 rejection of the 300 million Dollar property tax hike.

It's clear that the next time he says here is what the budget is going to be.

He wants that to be able to stick.

And as you said, he's got a very limited time to do it.

They're hoping to pass the budget on December 13th.

We'll see if that happened quickly.

You know what happens if the city council fails to pass a budget by December 31st as required by law?

Well, we would be in unprecedented uncharted territory.

It appears as if the city government would have to shut down vendors would stop being paid.

It's not clear whether city employees would be paid after January.

1st.

That is a possibility.

Nobody wants to confront and is why there is so much pressure on City Hall to figure this out.

they're all hoping we can stay in.

The president did territory.