48 replies to this topic

[sin city]

"Chicagoans would get hit with a $108 million property tax increase as well as hikes in many other fees next year under the proposed $5.9 billion city budget Mayor Richard Daley unveiled today to the City Council. Daley called for a new 10-cent tax on bottled water, along with an increase in several other current fees and taxes. They include doubling the city's 911 surcharge to $2.50 a month on land lines, increasing liquor and beer taxes, raising the lease-transaction tax on items such as cars, DVD rentals and office equipment. Parking fines also would go up."

[Jimmy TKB]

Welcome to Lake County, Chicagoans!!! Come up north to cheap booze, cigarettes, low property taxes and shitty roads. (there's gotta be a catch somewhere)

[Nick]

Grocery bills in the suburbs!

[Duff.]

I wonder if we'd vote this guy out of office if he publicly murdered a man. Like, in front of CLTV cameras. "Yeah, but he does get stuff done..."

[Agrimorfee]

Couple that all with that idiot Stroger's proposed 11% sales tax, and it's a wonder why I even want to live in the state anymore.

[The Gooch]

The gasoline and "vice" taxes alone in the city are ridiculous. Isn't the sales tax also over 9%? Crazy.

[fffffffff]

wait... theres a charge for calling 911? that seems fundamentally wrong.

[cerebralcaustic]

10-cent tax on bottled water

Retarded. Is there also a 10-cent tax on bottled soda? Same environmental impact and a fuck of a lot less healthy.

wait... theres a charge for calling 911?

that seems fundamentally wrong.

There's a monthly fee on your phone bill.

[Tracy Jacks]

This is so messed up. Chicago, Cook County, and the state all planning tax increases for various reasons. Very little talk about reigning in spending. Why did I leave Portland? But I am SO in favor of a tax on bottled water. We live next to one of the biggest fucking lakes in the world with an endless supply of fresh water which provides us with some of the best tap water in the US. Bottled water in Chicago is Double Secret Retarded.

[crease]

The backlash to this idea has been swift and harsh. Between this and the Cook County board's attempts to ram through a huge sales tax hike, you've got to ask yourself what the hell these guys are thinking. It's obscene.

[fabulous muscles]

Whatever happened with the interwebs sales tax?

[sKinnY]

Whatever happened with the interwebs sales tax?

shhhhhhh...they'll hear you.

[Hero]

The gasoline and "vice" taxes alone in the city are ridiculous. Isn't the sales tax also over 9%? Crazy.

yep, it's almost 10%

i eat out downtown about twice a week and still am puzzled when i hear the price....

[zolacolby]

Just stay the fuck out of Naperburg...

[sKinnY]

Sales, gas and parking tax hikes in Stroger budget proposal

Plan would help pay for 1,000 new employees

By Mickey Ciokajlo

Tribune staff reporter

10:28 AM CDT, October 17, 2007


Cook County Board President Todd Stroger today proposed more than tripling the county's share of sales taxes and doubling the gas and parking taxes to fund a $3.2 billion budget for 2008 that would add 1,000 employees to the payroll.

Stroger said the increase in county workers to 24,841 is needed to boost staffing at the jail, juvenile detention center and the hospital system.

In his budget speech to county commissioners this morning, Stroger said he remains "open to suggestions" but made it clear that the county must raise taxes.

Stroger called the county's structural deficit, the imbalance between revenue and expenses, "the elephant in the room."

He had backed away from an attempt two weeks ago to persuade commissioners to increase the sales tax by 2 percentage points, from 0.75 percent to 2.75 percent. At the time, Stroger suggested he might settle for a smaller increase.

But in his budget, Stroger returned to the plan for a boost that would push the combined sales tax in Chicago to 11 percent, the highest of any major city in the country.

Stroger's plan would double the county's portion of the gas tax from 6 cents per gallon to 12 cents per gallon. He also proposed doubling the tax on drivers who use public parking garages, which is based on a complicated rate schedule

[Finn McCool]

Todd Stroger should be stoned to death in a public square. His wasteful cronies should be rounded up and made to do the stoning. How in the fuck did this criminal end up in county governme-...oh, yeah: that's all Cook & Chicago politics is. Criminality, waste, patronage, theft & financial assault with cushy pensions.

[hummingbird]

Why is it that Chicago is continually being cited as the highest everything? Is this really the reputation that Daley, Blago, and Stroger want? Highest taxes, highest gas prices, highest public transit... That sounds like a city and state I want to live in

[Finn McCool]

Why is it that Chicago is continually being cited as the highest everything? Is this really the reputation that Daley, Blago, and Stroger want?

Politics, all politics really but almost obscenely obvious in our fair City & State, isn't about reputation. It's about theft of public wealth to line your & your cronies pockets. Period. Always has been, always will be.

[Finn McCool]

It's put my plans on moving back to the city on hold.

I thought you lived in Rogers Park?

I'm having difficulty but, if I'm persuasive enough, I'm hoping to coax my wife into selling & moving to Will or some other, ANY other really, county. Fuck Stroger, Daley and this city's wastefullness but eagerness to pickpocket.