New poll shows supermajority of Chicagoans – 90% of Black and Latino city residents – support higher taxes on big corporations, more resources for schools


New poll shows supermajority of Chicagoans – 90% of Black and Latino city residents – support higher taxes on big corporations, more resources for schools

Chicago, IL —The leading Millennial & Minority-owned public opinion research firm in Washington, DC, HIT Strategies, released a new poll today on behalf of the Chicago Teachers Union that outlines enormous levels of support among Chicagoans for revenue strategies that increase taxes on large corporations instead of the alternative of increasing taxes on property owners or cutting education and other city services.

An overwhelming 90% of Black and Latino Chicagoans would prefer to increase taxes on large corporations to address the city’s budget.


Among every age and race bracket, supermajorities support policy proposals to make large corporations contribute more. The number goes up even higher when such revenue would be dedicated to education, an area of the city which 70% of the city agrees is not receiving enough funding.


The polling data released today concludes with new numbers that not only show wide support for the policies but that support from voters would greatly increase for local elected officials – 72% viewing Gov. Pritzker more favorably, 67% viewing Mayor Brandon Johnson more favorably, and 64% viewing alderpersons more favorably – if they were to pass legislation to tax the wealthy and corporations in order to benefit schools and healthcare.


Joshua Doss, Senior Research Manager for HIT Strategies explains, “The new poll shows that Chicagoans want to see their city and state challenge the billionaire agenda and institute common sense policies that have worked in other cities and states. Taxing large corporations to benefit schools, health care, and other social services is not only popular, it is nearly unanimous among key demographics in the city.”


“Voting yes on the corporate head tax is the majority position. Chicagoans watching Trump dismantle government and give it away to his billionaire friends want to see their elected officials do something about it,” adds Hilario Dominguez, Chicago Teachers Union’s political director. “Alderpersons considering voting ‘no’ on the Protecting Chicago budget and the corporate head tax should understand just how deeply contrary that position would be to the vast majority of the people they represent. Even before Trump robbed key services like SNAP and special education to give those funds away to the ultra-rich, Chicagoans were tired of having the budget balanced on our backs while the largest corporations got new breaks. We didn’t just rally for No Kings to save democracy, we rallied because we want a fairer city and state.“


Dominguez continued, “The poll shows 90% of Black and Latine communities want their alderperson to vote yes on taxing large corporations, yes on the Protecting Chicago budget, and yes on directing resources to decrease class size, increase services for students in special education, reopen school libraries among other essential community services.”


The day before the poll was released, CTU’s research department launched an interactive tool, protectingchicagoschools.com, that outlines the negative impact a vote against the proposed TIF surplus would have at a school-by-school and ward-by-ward level.


A summary of the poll results can be found here.

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