Cook County Sues Channahon, Kankakee Over Sales Tax Loopholes

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 3, 2011 8:50PM

Following the lead of the Regional Transportation Authority and the City of Chicago, Cook County has filed a lawsuit against the towns of Channahon and Kankakee accusing them of using a sales tax loophole allowing companies to do business in Chicago but record the sales in the other two towns, thereby taking advantage of their lower sales tax rates.

In addition to taking advantage of the lower tax rates, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said Kankakee and Channahon give companies rebates of as much as 85 percent of the town's share of the sales tax.

This suit and those filed by the city and RTA claim the shelters divert much-needed tax revenue their operational budgets, all of which run in the red right now. In RTA's case, that lost tax revenue is the difference between Pace, and CTA having to make lemons from lemonade (and possibly the difference between Metra not threatening service cuts and threatening service cuts).

This isn't the only tax-related problem facing Channahon. Last month, Channahon Mayor Joseph Cook pleaded not guilty to federal income tax evasion charges.