Here a Tax, There a Tax
- Months after winning approval for a controversial penny-on-the-dollar sales tax increase, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle now wants to extend the county's 3 percent amusement tax to cable TV and recreational activities such as bowling, golf and many for-profit sports leagues.
The additional $20 million — most of it coming from cable taxes — would help close a projected $199 million hole in the operating budget, Preckwinkle said. The county would get much more from the sales tax hike and spend it on shoring up government worker pension funds, loan repayments and capital projects such as roads, bridges and major technology upgrades.
"We're taking the difficult but necessary steps to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of county government," Preckwinkle said during her 2016 budget address Wednesday. Later, she characterized the expansion of the amusement tax as a "modest" effort to close a loophole, given that the city already charges its 9 percent amusement tax in those same areas.
Someone want to remind us what the purpose is for County government? Most of their functions are already performed by incorporated cities, suburbs and townships. Yeah yeah yeah, we know they're a political patronage machine, so their main purpose is fleecing taxpayers for assorted government slobs to "earn" a living, usually the relatives too dumb or corrupt to go into city government. So why does this entity still exist to steal our money?
Labels: county, money questions
posted by SCC at 12:11 AM
58 Comments:
Someone please let me know when the revolution begins
ICYMI
Illinois To Delay Pension Payments Amid Budget Woes: "For All Intents And Purposes, We Are Out Of Money Now"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-14/illinois-delay-pension-payments-amid-budget-woes
That'll whip you guys in line. It's every man for themselves when they start fucking with your money.
Fear is a powerful motivator. How ya like that manipulation?
You forgot...
Emanuel tax plan won't work, Preckwinkle says—and here's why
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle dropped a political bomb on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed 2016 city budget today, saying it's technically impossible to implement a special break Emanuel wants in order to largely shelter city homeowners from the $588 million property tax hike he plans.
"We can't do it," said Preckwinkle, referring to an expanded homestead exemption Emanuel wants, a measure that would have to be administered by the county's property-taxing system. "There's no way we can get our computer software to do it."
hahahahaa.
Who wants to bet Rahm knew this all along and wanted to create the illusion of being a nice guy. Now he can claim not my fault I wanted to give people a tax break but Prekwinkel can't handle it. So guess we'll just have to increase taxes on everyone. I tried..lol.. /sarc
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20151014/BLOGS02/151019925/emanuel-tax-plan-wont-work-preckwinkle-says-and-heres-why
Meanwhile, Illinois lottery dropped down to $600 dollars the amount they will pay anything above that you get an IOU
Sounds like a good tax on useless time wasters. Going to church is entertaining, good for your soul, inexpensive and tax free.
Your so right
"We're taking the difficult but necessary steps to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of county government"
The minds of these politicians is hard to believe at times. These people,could care less about anything but keeping themselves in business. Hard to believe no one is SCREAMING for these nitwits to CUT Spending and clean up fraud and waste. I guess its ok to just keep raising taxes. House value goes down , they just raise the multiplier to make up for it. Sickening.
Dump the County. Its a Double-Double of the City. John Daley standing large behind Toni Prekwinkle on TV. What's that all about? Oh!! Right!! Its a signal that no one is to crumble and moan. His position and stance there on TV was as if he was acting like 'The Word'. And those Commissioners...all they do is sit on their big butts and collect a large paycheck for raising their hands to approve tax increases. Where are the cuts, the stop the spending, the hurt?? Oh, Yeah right..that's for we Peons. Focus and dump this crap.
"Someone want to remind us what the purpose is for County government?" -- SCC
At least half of it seems to be the replication of other government departments. Not going to get caught out. Fedgov has DHS, EPA, etc, it trickled down to states, then counties, then cities as the years went by. Even had to have their own Obamacare system, "Countycare." Will probably need to get surplus M113s and form "Countycare SWAT" soon, everything rolling that way.
..and fourth-generation all the radios together so everyone can say "Holy Crap!" to each other at the same time as they figure out the buckles on their LBE...
...and we pay more and more and get less and less of everything but s__t and taxes and restrictions, which increase exponentially. Anyone notice that?
Just one $120,000/year do-nothing = 60 $200/month LINK cards.
Aim high.
crook county baby
You want to get some real tax revenue? Hit up those Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in Chicago. It's not like they are going to go anywhere. Why would they leave for Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix or some place like that?
So yeah of this moment my cable is cancelled, never again bowl or golf in Crook County. Keep it up bitch! Pretty soon I will hold my breath till I get to Will County.
DBEL
Good old Chicago/Cook County Democrats. Just keep raising taxes. No pay cuts for anyone, no lay offs for non essential services. Just keep raising taxes. No cuts in spending.
Damn, just when I wanted to take up bowling.
And the county is hiring people. Not enough money, don't cut costs, just add a tax to "white people" activities. Why should they have any fun! It's time to oppress them for two hundred years. No one will run against these people, I think, because anyone that would is probably working for her.
Why not put time restrictions on Public aid? How much tax money is used to support this system? Why allow lifetime benefits? Perhaps a five year cap? Seems many on the system have never even tried to work or get a job.
If Cook County was ran like a business none of this madness would take place. But its not ran like a business so no one in the county cares because its not there money and its not there job on the line. I feel sorry for the cook county business that will be affected by this madness. They are being punished because of an incompetent county. I am happy for the businesses in the surrounding county's. There looking better every day.
e county would get much more from the sales tax hike and spend it on shoring up government worker pension funds,
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Our democratic friends have never met a tax they didn't like or didn't hike--- Ronald Reagan
How about a reduction in the number of political positions to start. Do we really need all these comptrollers, aldermen, congressmen, senators (both state and federal level)and various other do nothing jobs. Tis the modern age, we don't need an office holder to come back home to tell what is going on anymore (like in the 1800's or early 1900's)
I once called our cell phone company to get some pricing on adding a new line. The lady on the phone couldn't believe the amount of taxes we pay in Chicago. She thought that there was a mistake. She went on and on about it. I guess she would know what our taxes our compared with other parts of the country since she deals with the entire U.S.. The tax and spend liberals are at it again.
Ohhh but you can bet a fat-man on Friday
that over the last 5 years, Police and Fire
have had their throats cut by Rahm to the
tune of $BILLIONS and those monies re-directed
to the corporate sponsored/municipal government
Lick-Hitters, Money Conjurers, city service and public
school privatization profiteers and doers of Fuckery
who are made members of Rahm & Co., Daley Inc.
and Dude LLC.
>Jostle from the back...
Trip in the front just
as you get off the train<
Sinking feeling upon realization that your
ass-pocket done been cut to ribbons and your
wallet done been purloined...
Expect no less in this town and you won't be disappointed.
The elected official class here are nothing but a bunch of highwaymen.
At some time, sanity will return. We will all be dead though.
Illinois Commits "Fraud On Taxpayers", Lowers Maximum Lottery Payout To Just $600
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-15/illinois-commits-fraud-taxpayers-lowers-maximum-lottery-payout-just-600
"...The problem: the state’s inability to pass a budget even after hiring (and subsequently firing) budget “guru” and Laffer disciple Donna Arduin for $30,000 a month meant that any Illinoisan who won more than $25,000 couldn’t immediately be paid.
More specifically, without a budget the comptroller's office doesn’t have the legal authority to make the payments.
Fast forward to Wednesday and the state comptroller’s office made national news when Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said Illinois would skip a $560 million November pension payment. By way of recap (via Bloomberg):
The spending standoff between..."
How much will you take?
Suppose instead of a paycheck you get an IOU will you stop coming to work?
Broken Windows says linda kollmeyer should be taken into custody no? Oh wait, she doesn't do the drawing thing anymore. Smart move on her part eh?
See Broken Windows says you let them get away with not paying lottery winners and now bigger crimes like not paying peoples pensions is happening in plain daylight!!!
Has anyone called RICO yet or do they all get "professional courtesy?
/sarc
Another reason I am leaving this city and county far behind when I retire. I already do all my shopping outside the city and, when I can, outside the county. Screw these asshole politicians and the people who voted them in.
It seems that IL is one of the best in the nation with layers and duplicity at multiple levels of government.
see link below for data
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/05/us-usa-illinois-authorities-taxes-specia-idUSKCN0QA1IN20150805
Why is this story not front and center in/on the Suntimes/Trib/ABC/NBC/CBS/WGN/WTTW?
IL does not have a taxing problem, it has a spending problem.
The county system of government exists so that cities and suburbs and point their finger at the county, and say "see that wasn't us".
Examples:
Assessed value on your home went up? That was the COUNTY assessor.
Property tax bill too high? That was the COUNTY assessor.
Just got served with a lawsuit? That wasn't our police dept, it was the COUNTY Sheriff.
Gotta go to court? That's the COUNTY court system.
Call the next case. Not a cop.
If it's amusing, tax it, hells bells tax it twice
BTW - since IL can't pay Winners should state lottery be defunct ???
if most of County government was eliminated, with the exception of the jail, bailiffs for the courtrooms, prisoner transports, etc. (Dart and Toni and thousands gone)....would anyone notice?
I can't wait to retire and move from this awful state and city! This place is so corrupt beyond repair!
Trump is right! Politicians especially Democrats ARE stupid people!
SCC you answered you own question. That entity exists to provide an income for the dumbass politically connected and to steal our money. There ya go.
Old Dorothy Brown got the 6am knock on the door. Bye bye Dorothy.
County government like SCC says duplicates many municipalities! City government the city clerk susie mendozas office duplicates revenue,but yet costs taxpayers multi-millions each year for a political office! Years ago the city was going to abolish city clerks office but being a patronage office susie is going to go for higher office, maybe then it could be closed and save taxpayers money and throw more extra millions into police pension funds!
CUT SPENDING -
On a City Level, County level, and State Level.
Where is the Illinois Crime Commission? Why aren't they investigating all those running the Lottery?
When the Mob pays off gambling winnings better than the state - it's time to get rid of a LOT of bureaucracy and fire the incompetent relatives.
(OT) Over here we have Chicago's highest paid public employees but can't fund the pension and hire more police?
http://chicago.viewsmix.com/2014/08/15/chicago-highest-paid-employee-salary/
>Jostle from the back...
Trip in the front just
as you get off the train<
10/15/2015 07:06:00 AM
Accompanying dialogue, delivered with "significant eye contact" well within your "personal space" --
"Is you alright? Is you alright, my man?
"Is yo' name Bob?"
"Sinking feeling upon realization that your
ass-pocket done been cut to ribbons and your
wallet done been purloined..."
Anyone remember the term "jackroller?"
"John Daley standing large behind Toni Preckwinkle on TV."
10/15/2015 01:02:00 AM
Every time I see that guy, I can't help but think "obstetrician squeezed his head a little too hard with the forceps" during delivery...
>shudder<
Why do we need a county government? It's just an overlay on what we already had "governing us". To much government is just to much.
"
"Illinois Commits "Fraud On Taxpayers", Lowers Maximum Lottery Payout To Just $600"
So help the situation by not playing the lottery.
When it first started, it was simple enough for a tired person stopping off for a minute on his way home, just a couple of kinds of games. I can't make heads or tails out of it anymore, it's gone frantic, fifty different things going on, all blinding fluorescent ink and cartoon art to attract the simpleminded, like the sugar-cereal aisle in the supermarket I don't even go down.
Only megalomaniacs just automatically assume that they are entitled to so much of people's time and attention.
All of you naysayers please explain this to me. If Chicago, Illinois is so bad then why are so many well to do and educated people moving here? The South Loop is going to see several huge condo buildings and apartment buildings go up. The developers simply can not keep up with the demand.
World famous architect Helmut Jahn will develop this beautiful condo tower in the South Loop. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20150924/CRED0701/150929921/helmut-jahn-design-for-south-loop-tower-in-chicago-disclosed
Grady from Sanford and Son
Because we the people allow them.
Are they going to tax each pin that gets knocked down too?
"most of it from cable tax"
ok. then cut your cable. over-the-air TV is now better than cable anyway. if i want to watch sports, i go to my pub.
County government is virtually useless.
It's functions are redundant with city and state functions.
Toni won't make any substantive cuts but she wants to increase the amusement tax?
In the not too far off future the middle class will no longer afford to live here. They'll have been bled dry.
Only the ghetto dwellers and wealthy will be left.
I live in suburban crook county. My 2014 second installment property tax bill. Schools from Kindergarten to the Junior College is 67-1/2%%. Municipality and Township is 14%. Misc taxes ie water reclamation, library, park district 13%. Cook County taxes 5-1/2%. In the overall scheme of things the Cook County tax is not that much.
Don't get me wrong. There is way to much dead wood workers in the county system. I think a few years ago Preckwinkle wanted the local towns to incorporate the unincorporated areas. The towns were to smart for that. If the towns thought they would generate more income they would have done it already. She also wanted the local police to patrol the forest preserves. The towns said we are stretched to thin already.
When you go to buy anything in crook county the taxes that each town and the county want is Ridiculous.
As they keep raising taxes more people will leave when and if they can.
I buy my lottery tickets in Indiana. "Illinois" The Land of Leaving.
Two Pension PrizedWrinkle?
What exactly am I getting for my tax money from Crook County besides paying for the Commissioners pensions, remember Bobby Steele's smoove-moove temporary CCBd Prez stint yielded another $80k yearly bump to her pension.
Somebody has pay for those unchallenged perks.
Okay, the City proposes a "Wellness" requirement for its employees to promote good health and (possibly)to save a few dollars in health insurance premiums. But if you engage in certain recreational activities, Preckwinkle wants to slap you with a tax.
Is this discriminatory? Only the l% elites play golf (forgetting about Tiger Woods and so many other minorities on the Pro Tour), so let's tax the wealthy! Class envy at its worst. Why isn't Preckwinkle taxing basketball?
Chicago is broke? Crain's and the Better Government Association have been checking on another source of municipal waste and mismanagement.
Critics accuse City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Cheryl Hyman of building a massive downtown bureaucracy at the expense of the individual colleges. Ms. Hyman says she is consolidating services and imposing modern accounting practices on the seven-college system.
Budget documents put district office spending at $65.3 million in fiscal 2013, which began in July. That’s up 36 percent from the $48 million spent in fiscal 2010, when Ms. Hyman took office. The seven college budgets grew an average of 12 percent over the same period.
Most of the added headquarters expense has come from new hires; salaries and benefits are at $55.3 million in the 2013 budget, compared with $29 million in 2010. Of the 130 City Colleges employees paid more than $100,000, 75 work in the district office. Ms. Hyman hired 20 of the 28 employees who make at least $125,000. Except for the seven college presidents, all work in the district office. Ms. Hyman’s salary is $250,000 (which does not include the bonuses).
Tuition is up, tax levies are up, enrollment is declining and the City Colleges are building new classroom facilities for the students who have yet to enroll. It is insane! It is like the Chicago Public Schools making massive purchases of school supplies and office furniture that is simply warehoused and never distributed to the actual schools! $200 million to rebuild Malcolm X College (the previous building is forty years old)???
Illinois state government takes in more tax dollars per person than every neighboring state
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-state-government-takes-in-more-tax-dollars-per-person-than-every-neighboring-state/
Cook county hospital sucks up a lot of taxes. cut the hospital budget.
Cook County Government,Where's my Money for the flood damage in my basement,Crickets
Corruption that makes Al Capone an Honest man.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
All of you naysayers please explain this to me. If Chicago, Illinois is so bad then why are so many well to do and educated people moving here? The South Loop is going to see several huge condo buildings and apartment buildings go up. The developers simply can not keep up with the demand.
World famous architect Helmut Jahn will develop this beautiful condo tower in the South Loop. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20150924/CRED0701/150929921/helmut-jahn-design-for-south-loop-tower-in-chicago-disclosed
10/15/2015 04:28:00 PM
You assert developers can't keep up with the demand. That's simply not true.
(Never confuse egotistical big-name architects being willing to design a building for big bucks with 'demand' for residential units.)
We just experienced a huge glut of condos languishing on the market for years. Literally years. The market is just beginning to recover and developers have grown desperate to build and take advantage of the record-low interest rates.
Too many new projects at once will serve to do nothing but drive the prices waaay down.
'Supply' does not equal 'demand', and a surplus of supply will equal several projects going bankrupt. Too much, too soon.
Anonymous said...
Anyone remember the term "jackroller?"
10/15/2015 02:21:00 PM
We share your hatred of jackrollers, slack-cutters,
purse-snatchers, doers of Fuckery and the like.
We just smile at the memory of
being paid to hoyously hunt/hurt and imprison
these oxygen thieves.
There's a good old-fashioned cure
for mistuh jackroller...
"POW!"
Ye olde big-bore snub nose revolver...
Do NOT nod on the .44 Special
or .45 Colt launching 240 to 270 grain
hard cast Keith at 900+ FPS...
Eyeballing that new Ruger Redhawk .45 Colt
that has the rear of the cylinder relieved to accommodate
a moon-clip loaded with .45 ACP.
Hamilton Bowen offers a smooth & shave job to emulate
a Smith & Wesson Triple-Lock/New Century with a 2.75in barrel
but much stronger.
Mistuh Jackroller won't be sayin' too much...
He'll be genuflecting on that nickel size-ish
hole knocked through the logo of his ball cap.
Shades open... Front and back doors open. Nobody home...
>Grin<
How many millions has the county spent for over night camping in the forest preserves? A total waste of tax payer's money! Perrywinkle is spending our money on useless unseeded shit.......
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