Mayor Brandon Johnson wouldn't commit on Tuesday when asked if he would support possible alternatives to his proposal to raise property taxes to close a nearly $1 billion budget gap for 2025.Members of the City Council have voiced their opposition to raising property taxes.

The mayor is open to a “plethora of ideas” so long as they don’t compromise his core values of “investing in people” through summer jobs, community safety, behavioral health and affordable housing but also avoiding layoffs and furlough days and continuing to make additional payments on

Mayor Brandon Johnson reversed course after learning aldermen had teamed up to call a Wednesday city council meeting to defeat the tax.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is all but giving up on his proposed $300 million property tax hike before aldermen kill it, and pushing them to find other revenue in its place to avert layoffs. Johnson’s administration is combing over alternatives to the tax jump ahead of a meeting Wednesday where the City Council is expected to vote it down.

Twenty-two of the City Council’s 50 members met Saturday with top mayoral aides, including Johnson’s budget team, to begin negotiations that, some alderpersons said, should have started long before Johnson belatedly introduced his $17.