One alderman advocates a tax hike of 15-35 cents per bottle. Is it ever going to happen? more ›

Scofflaws beware: Mayor Rahm Emanuel said City Hall will siphon off millions of dollars in state income tax refunds from Illinoisans who owe Chicago money. more ›

The world’s largest owner and operator of financial exchanges is in Springfield to ask for an $85 million tax break. more ›

The spat over alleged municipal tax scams developing between RTA, the City of Chicago and a pair of towns far down the I-55 corridor isn't just another Illinois embarrassment; it impacts your public transportation rides. more ›

The freshman congressman suggests the rich be able to donate to the federal government as a charitable donation. more ›

Remember that corporate tax hike and the hullabaloo that ensued? Well, things are still a bit up in the air, as Illinois lawmakers re-think their original plan. more ›

With today being the official deadline to file your 2010 tax returns, we bring you last year's entry for America's Next Lady Liberty, featuring Chicago-based actor Steve Parks of Lombard, Illinois. For a more in-depth look at the trials and tribulations of the Liberty Tax Service wavers, check out Karl's piece in the AV Club. more ›

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton floated the idea of taxing retirement income yesterday while addressing a City Club of Chicago luncheon. "It would just be a matter of fairness," Cullerton said, according to the Tribune. Although he says details are still being worked out, Cullerton suggested that taxing retirement income at the current five percent rate that Illinois taxes other income could yield the state around $1.6 billion. more ›

Gery Chico has the distinction of being the first mayoral candidate to launch an attack ad with the video below pouncing on Rahm Emanuel's proposed tax plan. more ›

A lot of hay has been made in the press about the recent tax increase in Illinois, especially from our neighbors to the North in Wisconsin, where the newly-elected governor is anxious to prove that the taxing ways of Illinois Democrats will lead to our state's demise. Even Indiana's gotten into the act, with the mayor of Indianapolis running full page ads in the Chicago Tribune and the Peoria Star Journal encouraging businesses to relocate East to take advantage of what's advertised as a more favorable tax rate. Illinois's elected officials haven't helped the situation, either, passing the tax increase without doing much to frame the issue. more ›

It seems that the proposal from Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts to fund renovations for Wrigley Field that would have allowed the Cubs to keep all marginal growth in amusement tax collection on Cubs tickets is DOA after the Illinois Legislature failed to address the issue during its fall veto session. more ›

Friday, in the comments to our post on Oprah's "Ultimate Favorite Things" giveaway, reader "Chicago D" asked about the tax burden that would have to be assumed by Winfrey's army of formerly couch bound housewives who received the swag. more ›

Both Mayor Daley and Governor Quinn rejected the Ricketts family's proposal to renovate Wrigley Field using up to 35 years' worth of amusement tax growth in a bond offering. And it looked like both took very different approaches to do so. more ›

The Ricketts family has asked the state of Illinois to borrow up to $300 million in a bond offering that will fund a major to Wrigley Field, the beloved but 96-year old ballpark of their recently purchased Chicago Cubs. more ›

Despite speculation that Mayor Daley's impending retirement from the position of Mayor for Life™ might lead to City Council meddling with his budget, it was instead approved by the City Council’s Budget Committee Monday. With only one amendment, restoring $3.5 million in funding cuts to local chambers of commerce and other neighborhood planning groups, the budget passed committee. A final vote on the budget by the entire council is set for November 17th. more ›

Much hay was made in the news yesterday on Mayor Daley's 2011 municipal budget, including headlines heralding his ability to "balance" said budget without "raising taxes." Unfortunately for Chicagoans, neither is true. more ›

The news around Mark Kirk's apparent flip-flop over his vote against $26 billion in aid to keep teachers in classrooms and cops on the street got a little thicker yesterday. To wit, Kirk, who was for the jobs bill before he was against it, said in a statement that he voted against the bill because it added $5 billion to the federal deficit. Rich Miller at Capitol Fax explained the issue in depth, getting to the heart of Kirk's reasoning behind his vote. The Congressional Budget Office, which scores the estimated cost of congressional spending, found that the bill would reduce the deficit by $1.4 billion over ten years. When analyzed in the context of the Pay as You Go statute, which was enacted in 1990 and requires that all increases in direct spending or decreases in revenue generation are to be offset with other spending cuts or revenue hikes, that portion of the CBO analysis says that the bill actually adds $12.6 billion to the deficit. But that, too comes with a caveat: "Excludes savings in Titles II and III that would result from changes to programs and rescissions of funds previously designated as emergency, which total about $14 billion over the 2010-2020 period." Which, in short, says that the increase in the deficit doesn't take into account $14 billion in savings from other cuts and spending reductions - exactly what supporters of the bill had agreed to do to ensure its passage. more ›

It seems like he might be. That's because yesterday Congress sent a $26 billion jobs bill to President Obama's desk in an emergency session, passing the House on a 247-to-161 vote, largely along party lines. The bill, which provides funding to help avoid teacher layoffs while also funding positions for police, firefighters and nurses nationally, includes $10 billion for teacher positions and $16 billion to help cover state Medicaid payments. Kirk had said as recently as Monday that he would support the bill. “I'm inclined to vote for that legislation,” Kirk told the Sun-Times. “As a Republican moderate, my view is we should not add to the deficit. This legislation does make a number of cuts. ... that make it deficit-neutral. And it would keep teachers in the classroom.” more ›

• News/not news of the day: we have really high taxes.
• Chicago Public Schools will tap into their reserves to help close their $370 million budget gap.
• Some father-son duos watch baseball together. This one grew pot.

The recent economic crisis has exacerbated what was already becoming a huge problem for the city of Chicago: our municipal budget deficit. Barrels of ink and gigabytes of pixels have been published about both the shocking cuts and tax hikes needed and enacted to close the city's gaping budget hole; almost as much has been written about Daley's hoarding of tax dollars in the city's TIF program. And yesterday the Sun-Time's Fran Spielman ran a piece looking at the $2 million surplus the city had on hand after closing the books on 2009. According to Spielman, that number is significantly higher than the $200,000 the city had left at the end of 2008, but it's hardly enough shore up the half-billion dollar (and growing) budget deficit the city is caught up in this year. more ›

Oh, by the way, the state legislature adjourned over the weekend without a final state budget passed. With Gov. Quinn wanting that income tax increase and a $13 billion hole to fill, there's still work to be done, especially for Dems who have until May 31 to pass any budget. After that day, the legislature will require a super-majority (i.e., Republican support) to pass the budget. So when will the legislature reconvene? more ›

A proposal to raise the cigarette tax by $1 passed committee in the Illinois House yesterday, as the Human Services Committee voted 4-3 in favor of the tax hike. Supporters of the measure say the increase will add funding to schools in the state, generating over $300 million a year to state coffers. All Republicans on the committee voted against the measure, doubting that the funds will actually go to fund schools. If enacted, the tax will be phased in over two years, with a 50-cent hike on September 1 this year, and again next year. Bill Fleischli, executive vice president of the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association/Illinois Association of Convenience Stores said in an op-ed in the State Journal-Register that the tax will drive smokers out of state and to the internet for their fix. more ›

As if you don't have enough reminders, today is April 15 aka Tax Day. And, protests aside, the big concern today for all you last-minute filers is the post office, right? Lucky for you, as always, some local post offices will be open 'til midnight to ensure you get your taxes postmarked on time. The U.S. Postal Service answers a few questions you may have about mailing off your tax returns and three area post offices will be open late to help you out: more ›

Rich Miller at Capitol Fax presented two interesting maps for comparison yesterday: a graphic showing which states get more than a dollar back in federal spending for every dollar sent to Washington in taxes, and a graphic showing how those states voted in the last presidential election. The rub? Except for eight states, all of those receiving less in federal spending than they contribute voted for Barack Obama, including Illinois. Does this make us in the Midwest exceptionally generous? Or foolish with our cut of federal spending? more ›

If you’ve already been working on your taxes, you’ve probably noticed the “tax check-off” charity options on your Illinois state returns. If you are doing your taxes on paper, these are found in Schedule G - if online, they come somewhere near the end of the state section. One of the donation options on the list is particularly close to our hearts - the “Feeding Illinois” option. more ›

In an effort to increase transparency, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is releasing the tax returns he and his wife, Janine, filed in 2008 and 2009. If the other three candidates that are running for the seat don't as well, “it tells me there must be something they don’t want you to see,” he told the Tribune. The other Democratic candidates replied quickly to denying the request. more ›

Talking about high taxes in the City of Chicago is a pastime of sorts. Now, we have another one we can put on the list. According to a study done by The Wireless Association - "an international nonprofit membership organization founded in 1984, representing all sectors of wireless communications" - Chicago tops a nationwide list of cities with the highest cell phone taxes. The study was released over the weekend by New York congressman Anthony Weiner, the Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. Weiner is also a cosponsor of the Cell Tax Fairness Act, a bill that counts a few of our own area U.S. reps - Luis Gutierrez, Judy Biggert, and Peter Roskam - among its cosponsors. more ›

Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a bill that makes it easier for Cook County commissioners to beat back a veto, reducing the number of votes needed from 14 to 11. And while Quinn called the measure a chance to make government more responsive to voters, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger wasn't too happy about it. Stroger's governmental affairs director Derek Blaida said the president's office "believes there are constitutional concerns and questions over changing the power of the executive branch and shifting that to the legislature during the middle of a term," according to the Tribune. Blaida said that Stroger will continue to review the measure, with an eye on a legal challenge. more ›

As property taxes in the city are set to skyrocket, Mayor Daley, still reeling from the parking meter debacle, the loss of the 2016 Summer Olympics and an all-time low popularity rating is playing the blame game. After claiming that he'll hold the line on taxes with next year's budget, he's pointing fingers now that property tax bills are set to soar, even while property values have plummeted. Going after Cook County Assessor James Houlihan, Daley proclaimed his ignorance of how property taxes are assessed. "The thing I can't understand (is) this whole assessment deal," the mayor said. "Now, no one's value is going up in the city. ... I'm asking him how he does it." (Our own Chuck Sudo explained how they work in the comments of this post.) more ›

Cook County Board President and local punchline Todd "The Toddler" Stroger is taking a page out of Mayor Daley's political playbook: holding the line on taxes. In a speech to county commissioners this week, Stroger touted his proposed $3 billion budget as maintaining the same level of service without raising taxes. "The executive budget I place before you is balanced, no delays of payment cycles, no long term borrowing to fund operations, no use of reserve funds to pay our bills. Likewise my budget plan for 2010 includes no new taxes, none," Stroger said. "Today, as our national and state governments face terrible deficits, and as many local governments in Illinois find themselves in dire financial shape, Cook County is relatively strong," he said. The proposed budget will actually increase spending by about $80 million, nearly four percent. Those costs include covering previously unmet obligations to employee pension funds, an increase of $35 million to the county sheriff's office, and $22 million in employ pay increases. more ›