Mayoral challenger Susana Mendoza vowed Wednesday to repair what she called the “damaged” relationship between City Hall and Chicago’s business community by treating business “as a partner — not a piggy bank.”
Two days after filing her nomination petitions to join the now 15-candidate field seeking to deny Mayor Brandon Johnson a second term, Mendoza portrayed the embattled incumbent as openly hostile to business.
During a luncheon address to the City Club of Chicago, Mendoza pointed to the proposed $17.6 billion budget that will serve as Johnson’s re-election platform.
“The mayor’s proposed head tax — it kills jobs by penalizing companies for hiring more Chicagoans. His push to borrow another $480 million saddles us with more high-interest debt that we cannot afford. His personal property lease transaction tax stifles tech ecosystem growth and drives up everyday costs, from ride shares to streaming service,” Mendoza said.
“We must grow our economy — not tax it into further decline.”
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, Cook County Board of Review Commissioner George Cardenas and Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas are all running for re-election to their current office while campaigning for mayor. Mendoza chose to retire as state comptroller to mount her second mayoral campaign.
On Wednesday, she told the City Club audience of movers and shakers her “growth plan” for Chicago’s economy starts with “re-setting the City Hall relationship with the business community and the markets.”
The longstanding partnership forged between City Hall, labor and business “guided us through disasters and downturns that flattened” other cities “by choosing collaboration over combat when it mattered most,” but those days are over, Mendoza said.
“The relationship between City Hall and the business community has been damaged. I will restore it,” Mendoza said to applause.
The retiring comptroller then extended a verbal olive branch to one of Chicago’s most influential business groups, recognizing the $100 million for violence prevention raised by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club.
“On behalf of the people of this city, thank you. Thank you. That investment deserves a partner in City Hall who says, 'Thank you’ instead of just trying to tax you,” she said.
Mendoza said she would measure the success of her growth plan against five big-picture goals: reducing the cost of living; rapid construction of new housing; population gains; “ramping up job creation in every neighborhood" and “leading in key emerging industries shaping the next economy.”
She promised “sustained housing construction and population growth" would be underway in her first term.
“We will cut housing construction approval and permitting timelines in half. San Francisco and San Diego recently halved their timelines. We must get that done,” she said.
“As mayor, I will make the construction crane the official bird of Chicago," she said. "We’re gonna see more cranes than pigeons."
"Chicago is a city of builders. We need to get back to the core of our DNA.”
Within three years, Mendoza promised to establish Chicago as a national leader in two key emerging industries.
She noted Chicago is "already in the top two for quantum" computing and "poised for more." The city also is well-positioned in fields like digital health, robotics, logistics and regulated digital markets that could "shape the future of money," she said.
"These are not advantages, though, that we can take for granted. They are positions that we will lose if Chicago City Hall keeps treating them like press releases, instead of priorities," Mendoza said.
And within eight years — "which means you have to vote for me twice," she joked — Mendoza vowed to "transform" workforce development and job creation "in every neighborhood" of Chicago.
"Black unemployment in this city is unreasonably high — and we do not talk about it enough. Addressing it will be one of my top priorities as your mayor," she said.
"Work is the primary gateway to safer communities. Work is the promise of a better life. This city has neglected that promise for far too long in too many neighborhoods for too many Chicagoans. This is the moonshot of my growth plan."
Mendoza promised to "connect training in every neighborhood directly to employer needs," measure success by how many Chicagoans "secure good-paying jobs" and create a "robust program to lower costs for small businesses," she said.
"Chicago businesses deserve to stop feeling like piggy banks and start feeling like partners."
If she's elected mayor, Mendoza promised to catch a flight to New York City at end of her first day on the job.
"In the morning, I'm gonna meet with every single credit rating agency and I'm gonna deliver one message: `Chicago is back,' " she said.
