Johnson was scheduled to deliver his annual budget address Oct. 16 but is now planning for Oct. 30, according to sources briefed on the mayor’s plan. Under the new schedule, hearings to probe every department’s budget would happen in November and a series of votes on the budget plan would not occur until early December.

The mayor has not firmly committed to either schedule and could be testing the waters to gauge the reaction of the City Council if they’re asked to push back potential votes on the budget until December, which would present a truncated timeline to consider the proposal ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline to approve a balanced budget.

If the mayor pushes back the timeline, an announcement could come as soon as early next week.

The mayor’s office declined to comment.

Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, who chairs the Budget Committee, which will hold marathon hearings to probe every city department’s spending plan, told Crain’s he wasn’t aware of a decision to move back the schedule.

The mayor also faces an end-of-the-year deadline to close out the estimated $223 million budget deficit for 2024, primarily driven by the failure to get Chicago Public Schools to shoulder the burden of a $175 million pension payment on behalf of non-teacher positions in the district.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot made an agreement with the school district to cover a gradually increasing portion of the total pension payment paid into the city’s Municipal Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund, but it had been a contentious practice even before Johnson took over.

Despite previously opposing the school district taking on the costs as a political organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson has sought to continue placing the burden on the district while agreeing to hold the payment steady at $175 million for two years. But CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and the seven-member Chicago Board of Education, appointed by Johnson, refused to include the payment in their budget.

Martinez and the board also declined to take on a $300 million loan to accommodate the pension payment and the anticipated costs for a potential new contract with the Chicago Teachers Union.

The issue is among the reasons Johnson asked for Martinez to resign. Martinez refused, placing the burden on the Board of Education to consider terminating his contract. The board declined to take up the embattled CEO’s contract at a previously scheduled meeting last night.

Ervin scheduled an Oct. 3 hearing in his committee to bring Martinez before the City Council to explain why the district is refusing to take on the payment. Despite Martinez publicly rebuffing the mayor’s request to resign, Ervin expects him to show up because the date was “agreed to with his people.”

Beyond the $175 million the city is on the hook for this year, the $982 million gap for 2025 includes another $175 million payment.

“It’s causing us some heartache,” Ervin said. “This is $350 million worth of pain that we have to endure based on their decision, and there’s been no conversation, no explanation other than ‘we’re just not doing it.’”