A Tale of Numbers in Chicago
Chicago, Tax & Spending Issues Tagged Chicago, sales tax increase, wall street journal March 5th, 2008I posted Monday about Chicago’s latest badge of dishonor—The City With the Highest Sales Tax—and today, the news showed up in a Wall Street Journal editorial, “Second City No More.”
The piece is chock full of numbers and percentages that tell the tale of Chicago’s love affair with tax dollars better than any words could. Here are a few:
• 10.25% (Chicago’s total sales tax burden after Saturday’s increase)
• $270 million (the amount represented by November 2007’s “fee increase”)
• $530 million (the total brought in by January 2008’s “real estate tax increase”)
• $234 million (Cook County’s deficit)
• $100 million (the amount of possible reforms, noted by the Chicago Civic Federation)
Great news, huh? This makes me so mad.
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March 5th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
The most unnerving of all is that Cook County almost shut down their government over the amount of tax increase that was required! They did not even consider how to reduce consumption and or taxes!
March 6th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Go collar counties!
No Cook County Taxes…
March 7th, 2008 at 8:37 am
This ticks me off to no end. Shopping would be much more fun if it didn’t add an extra 10.25% to my tax burden on those dollars.
The one thing that makes me happy is that people with our political views aren’t the only ones upset. Check out this conversation thread on yelp: http://www.yelp.com/topic/chicago-i-am-not-buying-anything-in-the-city-of-chicago-part-deux
March 17th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I agree! Thanks for passing on the Yelp conversation thread–it is a relief to know we’re not alone in hating this madness.