Chicago School board elections and we break down the race for board president for election first off tonight, Mayor Brandon Johnson makes it official announcing he'll seek another 4 years as Chicago's leader, a former organizer for the Chicago teachers Union and member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Johnson won the 2023 race for mayor as an underdog in a contentious runoff election.

Since then, his administration has been defined by progressive gains on tipped minimum wage and paid time off for workers.

But an increasingly fraught relationship with City Council.

Johnson will face a crowded field of challengers on February 23rd and joining us to discuss his bid for reelection and more as Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Ice-t again.

Good to see you as well, Nick.

So why should Chicagoans elect you to a second term?

>> Well, first of all, serving as mayor has been incredible privilege and a joy in my life.

I made a promise 4 years ago to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago.

We've done that as I continue to work to build the safest most affordable, big city in America.

We do that by investing in people investing in youth employment, a promise that we will hire more young people.

This year we broke a record 32,500 young people with paid summer jobs, the largest investment in the history of Chicago.

I said that we have to invest more in our public institutions, particularly a public schools have sent over a billion dollars into our Chicago Public schools also said that we have to reopen mental health clinics when mayor her Washington died.

There were 19 what I was sworn in.

We were down to 6.

I reopen 3 mental health clinics and we expect at the care program Crisis assistance response, engagement.

So when a mental health crisis pay behavior, mental health crisis, professional shows up in that scene instead of a police officer.

And I said we're going we're going to build more affordable housing.

We've done that through our 1.0 2, 5, economic development bond, which is the largest economic development.

But in this go and finally, we experience historic lows in violence last year.

We had the fewest amount of homicides in 60 years this summer were on pace to sustain that.

There's more work to do.

And so that's why I'm asking for 4 more years to continue to build a safe, affordable and a resilient city.

If you were to point to a single accomplishment from your first term that your proudest of what would it be lowering violence?

Listen, when I ran 4 years ago, there were folks that said, if you elect a former public school middle school teacher that there would be absolute, you know, chaos, a mass exodus of law enforcement blood in the streets.

Look, one at the violence is one too many.

But there's not a mayor in modern history that can say that they oversaw the city at a time in which our economy was growing and violence was going down.

The magnificent mile is back.

We have the busiest airport in the entire world.

Our hotel occupancy rates 90%.

But again, lowering violence news that we're saving the lives of young men, particularly black and brown.

And so because of our investments in cvi, I promise to promote over 200 detectives by the end of my first term.

We've already promoted over 250 detectives.

Rebeck revamp our detectives bureau.

So now detectives bureau is communicating stronger within police department and now we have a clearance rate.

It's high.

70 1% hasn't been that high and in over a decade.

So again, driving violence town.

That was the top priority.

And we've been able to move in the right direction.

All right.

The flip side of that question, you know, reflecting back what you see is perhaps the biggest misstep of your first term.

>> Yeah, listen, I love the learning curve is really short when you're running one of the largest economies in the world.

And I believe one of the things that I should have done out the gate of should've spent a little bit more time in the community right at the time in which I was sworn in.

I was dealt with a great deal of crisis, right?

Buses coming in from the south.

There was no answer at the federal level.

No one had a blueprint of how to deal with the migrant crisis and that mission.

We had torrential rain.

I think we flooded out within the first 2 months of my administration.

We had wildfires coming in from the smoke coming in from from Canada.

And so with all of that chaos happening from the very onset, I did not take enough time to make sure that the people of Chicago new the what and the why.

Since then we've corrected that course.

And now we do a series of lakeside chats so that the people of Chicago know how we are building the safest most affordable, big city in America by investing in people.

I mean, you mentioned the torrential downpours that we've received several in recent years, several just this year.

You've called for protecting Chicago's environment from the increasing danger of climate change.

A big priority.

>> As well as affordability, which you discussed.

You know, how specifically are you looking to tackle those priorities in a potential second term?

Yeah, we're the first thing is restore the Department of of of environments right to administrations ago the city of Chicago got rid of it.

Now we have a chief sustainability and officer and Commissioner Angela told are the second thing that I did was we did something that no other major city has done in America.

Green social housing, using the economic development bond, which, by the way, we've invested over 2 billion dollars of economic development bond on the Westside of Chicago.

2.6 billion dollars on the south side of Chicago.

But a part of that economic development bond is to secure and to build green social housing to not only keep housing affordable, but to make sure that the utility costs are not driving people into poverty.

That's the second thing.

The 3rd thing is, you know, the entire footprint of the city of Chicago is now being powered by solar energy right?

Dimon Farm in Central Illinois.

Now we have 100% of our buildings are out all through renewable energy.

And then, of course, use resources for families could to allow themselves to retrofit their homes, to bring in electric stoves to again, to make sure that their homes are more resilient.

Look, we have 20% the world's fresh water right our front yard Lake, Michigan.

We've invested in young people to create green jobs and better infrastructure after that flooding, there was no answer, right.

And so working with the water reclamation District, President Kerry still we've been able to build essentially rain barrels underneath the ground to mitigate the flood flooding.

So a lot of that work, of course, is still ongoing.

My job in the second term is to continue to invest in our infrastructure to improve the quality of life for everyday people you mentioned, you know, the violence public safety.

Chicago police reported the fewer fewest number of homicides, June July and August since 1965.

>> A lot of the other folks, you know who are in this race are really framing public safety is a huge issue.

You know, sometimes Chicagoans when they're surveyed, don't necessarily feel as safe.

You know, even though those numbers are down, do you think there's a disconnect between, you know that the stats and what people are feeling?

What do attribute that to?

Well, first of all, let me just thank the brave women and men who serve this city police department who work every single day to make sure that we are keeping our community safe are cvi investments invested millions of dollars into our community violence, intervention workers.

These are individuals who have been justice involved.

And now returning back to the very communities in which >> they were traumatized and even wreaked havoc in and they're providing support for those families.

We've seen a 45 to 50% reduction in violence in communities and would see the eyes present.

But here's the point here, though.

It's not just about the absence of violence is about the presence of and for many communities who have been historically this invest it in.

That's why that feeling is still very present.

But let me be very clear.

There are people who are looking to take us backwards to a time in which disinvestment has been the cause of the trauma and the feel of a living in unsafe communities.

>> There are people who are being controlled by the alter it and the billionaires who are putting their interests over the interests of working people.

That's investing in affordable housing.

That's reopening mental health clinics.

That's funding our public schools.

That's why calling on the state of Illinois to fully fund our schools as well.

Because, again, it's not just about the absence of violence is about the presence of the things that improve the quality of life for working people.

You know, we're heading right into city budget season.

Your budget office is forecasted and 882 million dollar deficit for 2027.

Would you consider proposing a property tax increase the corporate head tax or either of those on the table?

Well, I made a commitment not to raise property taxes.

This is why I've called for millionaires tax working with the General Assembly to do that using the resources by taxing the rich to fund our schools and to provide property tax relief for working people.

Listen, affordability is the top issue.

Here's what we also know that the budget that I put forward last year, all of the revenue streams that were progressive outperforming what the city council did.

However, they put forth speculative proposals that did not bear witness for anyone.

In fact, he created the deficit that we are experiencing now I'll take it one step further.

If City council would have actually passed the full budget that I proposed, we would not be in the predicament that we're in this year because my sources have over perform.

The deficit is actually lower than what we initially projected.

Remember, this year's budget deficit was projected to be 1.0, 2, 5 billion dollars.

It's 884 million dollars of which 360 million dollars is attributed to an advanced pension payment.

By the way, that's not even codified in law.

And so have we done the necessary things, of course, to make government more efficient cost savings and to generate progressive revenue.

Absolutely.

But it's going require all of us to continue to work together to make sure that we're prioritizing working people.

The problem that we have with City Council is that they're more interested protecting corporate interests than working people.

This election is going to come down between 2 things.

Do we support the interests of working people or are we going to continue to capitulate to billionaires?

And I say let's prioritize working people.

That's what I've done for these first 3 and a half years.

And that's what I'm gonna do in turn to when talking about, you know, last year's budget went to, you know, block of city council members, you know, kind of came up with their own plan, passed that 2024, you know, all the people rejected your proposal to raise property taxes, you know, is more independent counsel.

A good thing for Chicago.

What let me just be absolutely clear.

Even with the rejection of the property tax proposal, what able to extract from that was in a a 400 million dollar revenue stream from PPL T the personal property leasing tax.

And so in other words, we were able to use that as leverage to X to get City Council to move on.

Progressive revenue.

Look, here's what's going to.

It's going to come down to.

Having a budget that reflects the values of working people.

That's the top priority here.

Billionaires in the corporate class have had unfettered access to the 5th floor.

One of the reasons why billionaires and millionaires are lined up against me in the raising hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat me is because they do not want to prioritize working people.

And that's why even after I announced yesterday, I'm leading a working class effort to continue to take out work directly to the neighborhoods so that the people of Chicago know that they're always going to be front and center under my leadership.

You know, there has been, as there always is turnover during the administration.

Your former budget director and that Guzman stepped down in August, former CFO children wore ski and her successor resigned.

>> Your opponents say this is evidence of a dysfunctional administration.

What do you make of that argument?

Listen, people get to retire and take other positions.

Now, did those positions stop us from investing in young people know did those positions that people retire from stopped us from Lori in violence in the city of Chicago.

Know have those investments stop me from prioritizing working people.

know the work does not stop with a single individual.

That's the problem.

You know, with my opponents by opponents believe that the interests of corporations should be prioritized of of working people.

And that's not the case under my administration.

I'm going to continue to improve the quality of life for working people.

That's why we have paid time off 10 days for over a million workers.

We've abolished the subminimum wage.

Our economy continues to grow.

Let's look at Magnificent Mile.

For instance.

Now we're seeing a return to the Magnificent mile to pre-pandemic numbers.

People are writing the CTA over a million riders every single day.

And we're seeing we saw 58% reduction on CTA in terms of violent crime, the city of Chicago is better and stronger and safer than when I inherited it.

And we're not going to go backwards to the billionaire class who want to continue to line their pockets at the expense of working people.

We're not going backwards.

Chicago.

Well, and you mention Chicago public schools, the city budget forecast estimates 340 million dollars in surplus TIF, money 181 million of which will flow to CPS.

Cps in its budget was counting on 285 million from tips.

Plus 150 million dollars in, you know, still unsecured state funding.

What should the CPS do you know now that these city funds they were banking on aren't likely to materialize?

Listen, I'm going to do my part, right, release more dollars into our public schools.

Then previous administrations combined, we sent over a billion dollars into our public schools.

But we've sent hundreds of millions of dollars into our parks and our libraries.

Here's the bottom line.

The state of Illinois has to do its part.

The state of New York funds, their public schools at 40%.

Pennsylvania 45%.

The state of California funds, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Those public schools that 70%, you know what the state of Illinois funds to Chicago public schools at the state of Illinois, all of our school districts.

25%.

And so you have politicians Springfield who have higher expectations for 3rd graders than they do themselves that Spartans will say that, you know, the evidence base funding formula hasn't necessarily had a chance to ramp up to full funding because they haven't put the full funding right.

So they continue to do the bare minimum.

Why do we continue to allow politicians to do the bare minimal?

No one.

He's allowed me to do the bare minimum.

That's why have given more into schools and any other administration is why of hiring more young people.

It's why of reopen mental health clinics hasn't been perfect.

It has not have.

We had bumps along the way.

Absolutely.

But I remember a time when city council was quiet and our communities working people were being destroyed, right schools being closed, mental health clinics being close, 80900 folks murdered every single year in this city.

That's not who we are anymore.

We are building safe and affordable communities because we're doing it together by prioritizing young people.

That's why I'm taking the Working People's neighborhood tour directly into to the to the neighborhoods and knocked on doors yesterday, I will continue to knock on doors and spend time with the community.

Here's what is at stake here.

We can either go backwards.

The way our city was run before where billionaires controlled every facet of our government.

And we saw a increase in violence.

People were being pushed out of the city.

Schools are being closed or we can continue to move forward to prioritize working people.

It's going to come down to billionaires of the coalition that stands with Brandon Johnson.

Well, I want to ask you about that because in your announcement speech also warned about candidates who my claim to be progressives but are actually posers who are the think progressive to see.

And that's given her that terminal.

While budget status there listen.

Individuals who were calling for schools to close individuals that are calling for the military should military's ation of our streets, individuals that are, you know, calling for austere budgets to cut services.

Do you know right now we have thousands of children who are unhoused to go to school every single day.

You know, many people who barely have enough.

To to afford food.

There are families right now that are struggling in the city of Chicago.

They do not have enough to feed themselves and their family.

That's who I'm prioritizing.

And these individuals who want to use our language but do not want to take any of the risks that come with the struggle.

I find that to be reprehensible and disingenuous in these individuals know exactly who they are because they're receiving cash directly from millionaires and billionaires.

Want to take us back to a time when schools were closed, public housing has been shuttered at a time in which law enforcement was not being held accountable where we had an administration that decided to not disclose and cover up the murder of a young boy who was murdered by police officer.

We're not going backwards.

We're going to go forward and we're going to do it together.

Prioritizing working people.

We've got just about 30 seconds left.

you know, one of your opponents, Alexi Giannoulias, sitting in a 22 million dollar campaign war chest.

You are outspent in the last race, but you emerge the winner.

Do you think you can do it again?

Listen, I'm prepared to make history.

By now.

Want to get re-elected, but continuing to build the safest most affordable, resilient, Big City in America.

The city of Chicago named the number one city in the entire world for resilience and of course, for climate being prepared for it for climate change.

And so we're going to continue on this journey as a city to make sure that we're prioritizing working people.

We're not going backwards.

We're going to run it forward to make sure that our city continues to become the signing example for the rest of the world.

All right.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, thank you for your time.

We appreciate thanks for having me.

And many other candidates for mayor have also been joining us on Chicago tonight.