Mayor Brandon Johnson presides over a City Council meeting on Dec. 16, 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Multiple business associations were swift to voice their opposition to Mayor Brandon Johnson's proposal to resurrect a tax based on employee headcount for large corporations after he unveiled it last week as part of his 2026 budget plan, which closes a nearly $1.2 billion deficit.  

While many progressive allies largely hailed the revenue options included in the budget that target the wealthy and big business — higher taxes on boat mooring and cloud computing are also proposed — some advocacy and labor groups said the plan didn’t do enough to protect certain city services or fix its finances.