Willie Wilson says he would cut spending, close schools if elected Chicago mayor

CHICAGO -- Businessman Willie Wilson vowed to sharply cut spending and even close schools if elected mayor , in a City Club speech Tuesday where he cast himself as a champion for Chicago’s business community. The perennial candidate likened Chicago’s spending to a runaway truck. If he took the Fifth Floor in his fourth mayoral campaign, he would build an off-ramp, he pledged. “The problem with Chicago, the taxes too high, businesses leaving out of town, the citizen leaving out of town, the corruption,” Wilson said in a nearly hourlong speech and public interview. The man known for his free gas giveaways spoke to a lunch crowd heavy with campaign supporters. The Maggiano’s Little Italy banquet hall included around half the number of people who turned up for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s speech there last month, and almost every table bore a “Willie Wilson Campaign” sign, seemingly indicating Wilson’s team had paid for the seats. Wilson billed the event as an unveiling for a plan to right Chicago’s unbalanced books by cutting $1 billion in costs and generating $500 million in new revenue annually. He shared few details to back up the plan, instead focusing on a lofty vision of shrinking government without raising taxes. Wilson claimed a department-by-department audit of city spending would generate $225 million in savings alone. He said the audit would target every city contract, but did not cite specific cuts he believes must be made. He also railed against “white-collar crime,” describing it as the source of “most of the problems.” Asked later to detail what he viewed as white-collar crime, Wilson pointed to Chicago Public Schools and zeroed in on Frederick Douglass Academy High School, where he said around 30 students are enrolled at a facility designed for 1,000. Wilson also called for trades to be made a top focus in schools and for CPS to implement stricter standards in reading, writing and math. The city’s budget operates independently of CPS’ budget, though CPS receives a substantial influx of revenue when the Chicago mayor declares a surplus of tax increment financing dollars, a move Johnson has cast as a necessary way to support schools in recent budgets. The school board is now entirely made up of independently elected members, meaning whoever is next elected mayor will have far less power over the direction of schools than previous mayors. Wilson won a first burst of applause when he listed off another campaign promise wrapped into his spending plan: Keeping the Chicago Bears in the city. While most proposals have been quickly rejected by city and state officials for involving massive amounts of taxpayer money to entice the Bears to remain in city limits, Wilson said the team’s presence creates numerous jobs. “The Chicago Bears is a top five money making for the city of Chicago,” he said. Wilson also pledged he would require more frequent competition for city contracts, steer more city spending to locally owned companies and push thousands of city-owned vacant lots toward development. All the while, Wilson, known for being one of the first Black McDonald’s franchise owners, touted his businessman background as the cornerstone of his campaign. “I may not know how to read and write like you, but I can beat you in business,” he said. “I am a bona fide pro-business person, I am always going to look out for businesses, because businesses employ people.” The self-funded candidate who has routinely won around 10% of the vote while running in Chicago’s last three mayoral elections pointed to the fortune he uses to pay for his campaigns as another separating factor. “The difference between me and the other candidates for mayor of Chicago: I’m not bought,” he said. And he rejected the idea his candidacy should center Black Chicagoans. “Don’t vote for me because I’m Black. I’m not your Black hope. Vote for me because I’m the best person to do the job,” he said. “I’ve had enough of this stuff. I’m Black. I’m White. I’m Chinese. I’m Latina. I’m all of the colors.” ©2026 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. More from this section Politics Voters demanded economic relief. Trump and Democrats face tough choices on how to deliver Updated Nov 8, 2026 Politics Democrats have gained control in more states. That could change the way the US elects its president Updated 4 hrs ago Politics Supreme Court clears the way for border wall construction in Texas’s Big Bend to resume Updated Nov 9, 2026 Politics What happens after a midterm tsunami? Lessons from 1974 and 1994 Nov 9, 2026 Inside Killeen Podcast