Results tagged “taxes”

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.

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.)

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.

Even though property values are down, property tax bills are going up. In the city, property tax bills will see an increase by an average of six percent while the increase in the suburbs of Cook County will see an average increase of four percent. [ABC 7]

Sticking to his vow not to increase taxes to close next year's budget deficit, Mayor Daley announced on Monday a portion of his plan to save millions of dollars in city spending next year. That includes 24 furlough days for city non-union workers (that's five weeks off, the equivalent of a 10 percent pay cut), no cost of living increases and three reduced service days. “The economic recession that has plagued our nation for well over a year continues to affect most of Chicago working families,” Daley said at a City Hall news conference. “I understand that times are still tough for people and I don’t feel right asking them to pay for more city government right now,” he said.

With the release of his 2010 budget approaching next week and a budget gap of over $550 million in the city budget, Mayor Daley's going to have to get creative if he wants to close that gap. He'll have to be even more creative now that's he promised he won't raise any taxes, fines, or fees. Said Daley yesterday, "I understand that times are very tough for people. I don't feel right asking them to pay for city government right now." The most likely option being bandied about, it seems, is still dipping into reserve funds from the city's parking meter and Skyway leases.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners has tried, and failed, several times to roll back the 10.25 percent county-wide sales tax. Yesterday, the Illinois General Assembly took a swing at it, as well. The legislation, which would have cut the sales tax from 1.75 percent to .75 percent, fell six votes short of passage. "This is going to really devastate all aspects of our government," Todd Stroger, who personally went to Springfield to lobby for the tax hike told the Tribune . "I'm trying to make the case for the county."

Now that Mayor Daley is firmly back on Chicago soil, he's staring down not only a dangerously low popularity rating, but also a city that's on the verge of economic disaster. Impending budget holes, (yet another) CTA Doomsday scenario, unemployment and of course the on going parking meter fiasco. Before any of these crisis, individually or in total, do him in, Mayor Daley is trying his darnedest to to some serious spin. He's already insisted he won't raise property taxes to close the budget gap, likely taking reserve funds to help him do that.

Lawmakers return to the Illinois Capitol today for the fall veto session. The session, slated to last three days this week and three next, will focus on money for cash strapped college students and stronger ethics laws.

If you live in a neighborhood designated as a "Special Service Areas," you could be facing a hike in taxes soon. The City Council's Finance Committee is to discuss the matter today. According to CBS 2, SSA's are, "...places where aldermen have the power to add upgrades to retail strips and streetscapes, as well as security enhancements to the neighborhood. To fund such projects, taxes go up on homeowners and business owners that live in an SSA area." The wards looking at this potential hike include the 9th, 23rd, 34th, 43rd, 44th, and 46th.

The state of Illinois may want to put a hold on the magical $40 million it granted to Chicago State University last month for a new West Side campus. According to the Tribune,

One thing about Daley and his pals that you can count on is that they tend to know what they're doing when they say they will or won't do something. So it came as a bit of a surprise that 33rd Ward Alderman Dick Mell told the Tribune he would call the selection meeting to replace former Commissioner Roberto Maldonado sooner than Tuesday's meeting. The Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to roll back the sales tax increase in July, before Maldanado left the board to become 26th Ward Alderman. Stroger vetoed that bill, but it looked like the board might have the 14 votes it takes to override that veto.

As Governor Quinn struggles to find ways to balance the state budget without help from the General Assembly, an unlikely duo of litigants have filed separate suits to stop cuts in state spending and further tax hikes. AFSCME, the largest public employee union in the state filed suit in Johnson County earlier this week to prevent the 2,600 layoffs that Quinn has threatened to impose if an agreement can't be reached the cut the state's payroll obligations. And Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz has filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court, challenging the constitutionality of the state’s new video poker law as well as liquor, candy and a menu of other tax increases set to take effect September 1.

After announcing that he's holding the line on property tax hikes and giving Chicagoans an "abatement" by raising the property tax below the full amount allowed, Mayor Daley expounded on the fundamental unfairness of excluding city teachers from the state pensions system. “We pay a double-tax. The pension is picked up by state government for all teachers outside Chicago. As a taxpayer in Chicago, you pay a tax there. Then, you pay another tax because the state excludes Chicago teachers. So, you’re paying two pension taxes: one for the state and one for the city,” Daley said Wednesday. “We’re the only, only local government doing that in the whole state. That puts a huge burden upon the school system. ... You’re paying two taxes. This is really unfair and we have to do something about it immediately.”

Chicago Public School officials are proposing raising property taxes. But instead of referring to the hike as an increase, Mayor Daley is calling it an "abatement." But rather than increasing the tax by the maximum allowable rater - 4.1 percent - the rate would be increased by about 1.5 percent, garnering $43 million, instead of "$83 or $100 million." Although the mayor had a lot to say about the tax hike and his proposals to cut pay in the schools, as well as his demands that federal employees take Chicago-style furlough days, he refused to discuss the $900 million projected deficit in the public schools 2010 budget.

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger made good on his promise to veto a second attempt by the county board to rollback the 1.75 percent sales tax by half a percentage point. Back in May the county board voted to cut the sales tax by the same amount, which Stroger also vetoed. Then, county commissioners couldn't muster the 14 votes needed to override the veto, leaving the sales tax hike, enacted amid much controversy and hand wringing last fall, intact. The sales tax increase has been so unpopular, county-wide, that a group of suburbs in the northwest have even voted to secede from the county.

1st Ward Alderman Manny Flores is moving forward with his plans to introduce an ordinance in the City Council to limit the city's Olympic liabilities. "While I remain a strong supporter of hosting the Olympic Games here at home and believe that the Games can provide an economic boost to our city," Flores said in a press release. "We must pursue the Olympic bid in a financially responsible and transparent manner." Flores would like to restrict the city's liability to $500,000,000 should the city win the bid to host the 2016 Summer Games. Mayor Daley signed a contract with the International Olympic Committee earlier this month in Switzerland, leaving taxpayers on the hook for unlimited damages.

There's not a whole heck of a lot of time for state lawmakers. The current state budget expires in less than 36 hours (midnight tomorrow). While the failure to reach an agreement won't mean an instant shut-down of the state, it'll definitely be a pain in the ass, as the makeshift budget passed in May contains a whole helluva lot of cuts. The State House is back at work today but the State Senate doesn't kick back into gear tomorrow. At the center of the budget fracas has been Gov. Quinn's call for a higher income tax, yet members of Quinn's own party are questioning Quinn's consistency. Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Cicero) told the Tribune, "What Quinn do you get on a given day? There hasn't been a consistent message from the governor's office in regards to solving the fiscal crisis. That also has the legislature acting inconsistently to find a solution." [Tribune, WBEZ]

Amid the growing controversy over Mayor Daley's signature on a financial guarantee for the 2016 Summer Games, the city's bid team met yesterday with aldermen behind closed doors. Mayor Daley's Intergovernmental Affairs Office informed aldermen of the meetings, which started at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall. Mayoral spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard denied that the meeting were secret. "The 2016 team walked into a public building in broad daylight right past a crowd of reporters that the team knew was waiting there and proceeded to brief aldermen as part of the same process that had been in place for decades," Heard told the Tribune. "First, aldermen are given the opportunity to ask questions and hear the facts in private. This allows them to develop a well-informed opinion before they air them publicly." Chicago 2016 spokeswoman Mica Matsoff echoed that sentiment, saying that the meetings were a decision the bid team made "as we're going through this in in real time and hearing things and responding to them."

As the backlash against Mayor Daley's Olympic commitments grows, 1st Ward Ald. Manny Flores is now saying that he will introduce an ordinance that will limit the city's liability for the Games to $500 million. Daley signed a contract last week with the International Olympic Committee, committing the city to assume unlimited financial liability for the "planning, organization and staging of the Games." Chicago has already guaranteed $500 million in backing for the Olympics.

• The University of Chicago has set up a site that allows people in Iran to fax their stories in to share on the web in the wake of the Iranian government's attempt to crack down on Twitter users. [via the Windy Citizen]
• Our pal Steve Rhodes wonders: if Lisa Madigan wants to run for governor, why does Obama want her to run for the Senate?
• An interesting read on the reform initiatives of Gov. Quinn.

When it all started, Mayor Daley said the taxpayers would bear no additional costs from his 2016 Olympic dream. We'd get the Games, development would be spurred on, and glory would come to Chicago. And the taxpayers would only reap benefits, from the redevelopment of Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital campus to revamped venues all over the city.

As time runs out for a new state budget, Governor Quinn is mulling over the possibility of calling a special session to hash it out. Quinn expressed a desire to have a new budget done in the next 10 days. He told WBEZ, "I plan to get together next week with the legislators, we'll talk tomorrow about how the mechanism is, but I think they understand they may have gone home for the summer-- summer vacation -- but their work isn't done." Yesterday, Quinn said up to 10,000 state workers could lose their jobs if the budget wasn't fixed from its current state.

The Illinois state house was working late in the night last night, attempting to hammer out a new budget before the midnight deadline. In the end, the house defeated Gov. Quinn's proposed income tax hike and passed a temporary budget that, while not containing higher taxes, still has giant holes, meaning they'll be back to hash out another budget soon. To pass the income tax hike, Quinn needed 60 votes for; the measure was defeated with 42 votes for to 74 against (the Trib has how they voted - PDF).

We know the city's hard up for cash. With tax revenues falling and city budgets tapped out we understand that the city is looking long and hard for any additional revenue streams. But this?

Poor Governor Quinn. He just wants to be liked and Mayor Daley keeps toying with his emotions. First, Daley got pissy over Gov. Quinn's budget. Then, MayDay said some very nice things about the Governor. But now Daley is back to questioning The Mighty Quinn's tax plan. According to David Stewart at WGN Radio, Daley said, "Just to say, ok my answer is to increase taxes, and I'm not going to look at, review my departments, which I think its very challenging and I think that they have to rethink that." We patiently await Daley's next statement on the issue, probably sometime next week, when he is expected to say, "Nah, I was just fuckin' with ya', Patty. Just bustin' the new guy's balls. Of course you can tax the shit outta everyone! It's Cook County!"

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger officially asked county commissioners to reduce the county sales tax by a quarter of a percent Wednesday, although he couldn't give any hard numbers about why the reduction was possible, or where the funding to replace it would come from. He told the press that the lack of "hard numbers" was because the county was still in talks with the federal government. He expects that federal recovery act funds will help close the gap on county services. Stroger persuaded county commissioners to raise the sales tax by one percent last year, saying that county services would be severely cut without the drastic hike.

          

April 15 saw hundreds of protesters descend on Chicago's Federal Plaza to ostensibly demonstrate against what they perceive as the expansion of government and its attendant intrusion in their private lives.

Is the Toddler feeling the heat from the recent (albeit symbolic) suburban vote to leave Cook County? Is he afraid that he's going to get his ass handed to him in the Democratic primary for jacking up county taxes and not delivering competent county services? That may be the impetus for his proposal to roll back county taxes by a whopping quarter of a percent.

Just days after giving his budget address to state legislators, Governor Pat Quinn challenged critics to come up with some solutions of their own. "It's easy to chirp about making a budget better," the governor told the Tribune editorial board. "If you've got a better plan, you'd better lay it out now because we are in a crisis." Quinn acknowledged that his plan to raise taxes and cut state spending may cost him politically, but he's also counting on honesty paying off at the ballot box. "My hunch is that people will rather have a governor that levels with them and sometimes delivers information that may not be easy to hear about, but is absolutely essential for the well-being of our state and the common good," Quinn said. "Most political consultants would say don't do what we're doing, I suppose, if you're just interested in your personal election future. But here I am."