Chicago Latinos Pay More In Taxes To Government Than They Receive In Return: Report

A new study shows that the Chicago area's Latino population contributes more to their local community than they take from it.

The report [PDF], released Wednesday by the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies and titled "The State of Latino Chicago 2010: The New Equation," provides a powerful counter to long-standing, harmful stereotypes of Latinos as receiving more than they give back to government coffers, according to Sylvia Puente, executive director of the Chicago-based Latino Policy Forum.

"In economically trying times, with many looking for a scapegoat for our region's fiscal woes, the Institute for Latino Studies once and for all refutes the notion that Latinos are socio-economic drains," Puente told the Chicago Sun-TImes. "Investing in Latinos offers a sound return on investment, helping shape our strong, shared future as a region."

The study found that the Chicago area's Latino population -- 22 percent of the metropolitan area as of the most recent Census count -- comprise 20 percent of the area's labor force. That percentage is expected to rise to 25 percent by 2015. In 2009, they earned $26.2 billion, which represents $12.3 billion in spending power and a total impact of $23 billion on the metropolitan area's economy. Between 2000 and 2010, the city's Latino population grew by 25,000, while the city's population on the whole decreased by 200,000 people.

Additionally, the tax revenues generated by Chicago-area Latinos -- more than $5 billion -- significantly outpace the costs of the public services they utilize -- an estimated $3.9 billion.

"The influence of Latinos on the economic, civic and cultural life of metropolitan Chicago is already enormous and will become much larger still when the current generation of children begins to make its mark in the next few years," Gilberto Cardenas, director of the university's Institute for Latino Studies said in a statement.

At the same time, Latino households earn under two-thirds the median income of Caucasian households. Further, their median income has dropped 13 percent between 1999 and 2008, compared with a decrease of only 8 percent for white Chicagoans.

The report also found that many more Latinos are moving to the Chicago suburbs -- and are doing better than those who live within city limits, WBEZ reports.

Photo by Zol87 via Flickr.

Comments

[SouthsideRefugee]

08:43 AM on 11/20/2011

These numbers don't add up. See page 19. According to this study, Whites in the Metropolitan Chicago paid $18,136,000,000 in local taxes, and received just $6,308,000,000 in services, for a net "contribution" of $11,828,000,000!

https://latinostudies.nd.edu/publications/SLC2010_v4pages.pdf

You would think that the authors would at least capitalize the name of the group "whites." Nope. The author capitalizes "Asians, African Americans, and Latinos, but not "whites!"

LOOK: "On balance, for every dollar whites and Asians pay in taxes, local governments spend 35 cents and 44 cents in services, respectively. Local governments spend more on African Americans and Latinos, relative to whites and Asians, for every dollar they pay in taxes: 70 cents and 77 cents, respectively."

On a side note: Where is the "Institute for White Studies?" The fact is that working-class Whites are not allowed to defend themselves or advocate for themselves or their children.

[Americatheteenager]

10:15 PM on 11/19/2011

Somehow I fail to understand how people who tend to have more children than most on average could be contributing more than they receive... Who's paying for the children's education?

[Ladder 1]

09:00 PM on 11/18/2011

Once again, HPO fools its liberal followers. Lets see here. They tell us that the population of Chicago is 22% latino. (not undocumented) But we are being lead to believe that it is the undocumented paying more than they receive.....I smell Micheal Moore.

[Ladder 1]

08:55 PM on 11/18/2011

Hmmmm. Latino. Not undocumented but Latino. Another bait and switch from the writers at HPO

[chevyliddle]

10:15 PM on 11/18/2011

You weren't supposed to notice.

[Ladder 1]

09:55 AM on 11/19/2011

Thanks Chevy

[dtairtime]

04:55 PM on 11/18/2011

This study is good for one thing - training a puppy.

Every "valid and complete" study done for decades shows that low income, high birth rate people are an extremely high cost demographic to the taxpayers. This study does confirm those two facts at and that Chicago latinos are just exactly that demographic at least.

[chevyliddle]

05:22 PM on 11/18/2011

They did what is usually done by the illegal advocates. They either factored in the legal and illegal together and stirred or never included the illegal faction into the survey at all. Whatever it takes to arrive at the numbers desired. If you're depending on this site for journalistic integrity....you're in for a disappointment.

[mira chancleta]

09:36 PM on 11/18/2011

what do you really think...

[1ccc1]

03:55 PM on 11/18/2011

Half-stories are Bogus. Did they factor All 'services'? of course Not, because that would negate this article.

[alpina]

09:08 AM on 11/18/2011

No. No they don't. Thanks to Obama and Rahm, Chicago is now a sanctuary city, which means that government officials are not allowed to ask individuals if they are here illegally or not. What that means is that on the taxes (money coming in) the people contributing are mostly documented and legal BUT on the money going out (illegal) is almost completely undocumented (perhaps a more appropriate use of the term). This study is anything but science, statistical fact or even common sense. But it does serve to promote a specific political agenda.

[Satirist1]

11:24 AM on 11/18/2011

No one really knows precisely the cost-to-burden illegal immigrants place on communicates. Certainly, there is a lots of empirical data, but it is virtually certain to be biased, depending on who is doing the counting.

[Razpooten]

05:16 PM on 11/18/2011

Careful your xenophobia is showing, this is not about immigrants, bubba.
The US has a segment of citizens that are identified as Latinos, Latinos. Dumbhuck.

[spytheweb]

12:20 AM on 11/18/2011

Are there less felons there too? Isn't Chicago releasing criminals back on the street?

How much is the cost to keep them in prison?

Hispanics reached a new milestone for the first time this year, making up the majority all federal felony offenders sentenced in the first nine months of fiscal year 2011, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034688/More-HALF-sent-federal-prison-felony-crimes-year-Hispanic.html#ixzz1e20L4jB9

[Satirist1]

01:30 AM on 11/18/2011

Don't confuse them with facts.
Open Border Truthers get easily upset by facts.

[Razpooten]

05:19 PM on 11/18/2011

To become slightly better educated and less xenophobic, you should read something like: "The New Jim Crow - Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindnees." Either way - you misse the gist of the story. Latinos are contributing more to the economy than you realize or care to recognize.

[chevyliddle]

07:19 AM on 11/19/2011

"Latinos are contributi­ng more to the economy than you realize or care to recognize."

That has never been an issue to date. I don't recall one debate on the contributions of any community with the exception of the illegal immigrants. Why write a story about the Latinos? I live in the Chicago area and have worked shoulder to shoulder with white & brown Latinos and their contributions to the area resources have never been an issue.

[hammerhead1326]

02:17 PM on 11/17/2011

Illegal immigration advocates continually seek to blur the line between legal and illegal immigrants . It seems to be working. They used to be generally referred to as illegal aliens , the legal description of persons entering this country without proper papers. Recently the advocates of lawless immigration seem to refer to them all as immigrants . Their message is that if you are against illegal immigration you are a bigot and are against all immigrants. No on i know is against immigration. We have immigration laws in this country for a reason . There are quotas for a reason . In orderly immigration one particular people doesn't flood the country and unbalance the ratio of races to the total population number. This is what's happening now. There will be severe consequences for our future is this is allowed, by our govt., to continue. Diversity is not what unifies us . Assimilation and a sharing of vision and ideals does. God help us.

[Satirist1]

12:32 PM on 11/17/2011

The debate is not about legal residents.
The debate is about illegal residents.
This article deliberately confuses the two issues.

[Dan Vasquez]

01:12 PM on 11/17/2011

What debate? The article is about a study. The only one having a debate is you and you're being paid to stir things up and post graffiti on these message boards.

[Satirist1]

01:56 PM on 11/17/2011

I understand why you got lost Thinking obviously is an unfamiliar territory to you.

[Kurfco]

04:57 PM on 11/17/2011

They always DO!

[beardown]

07:15 AM on 11/17/2011

Good to see they are paying their fare share.

[gemini68]

10:55 AM on 11/17/2011

Actually they are paying MORE than their fare share.

[Satirist1]

03:06 PM on 11/17/2011

You're wrong, gemini.
According to this report Lationos get back nearly double the amount of whites and Asian Chicago resident.

[Amiethisisme]

11:06 AM on 11/17/2011

Table 3-3. Local Tax Contributions and Cost of Public Services in Metropolitan Chicago, by Race/Ethnicity: 2009 (in millions)

White Tax Contribution to Local Governments: $18,136 Tax Contribution to Local Governments $6,308 $11,828
Black Tax Contribution to Local Governments $5,010 Tax Contribution to Local Governments $3,494 Cost of Provision of Services Balance $1,516
Latino Tax Contribution to Local Governments $5,047 Tax Contribution to Local Governments $3,870 Cost of Provision of Services Balance $1,177
Asian Tax Contribution to Local Governments $1,731 Tax Contribution to Local Governments $765 Cost of Provision of Services Balance $965

[chevyliddle]

05:20 AM on 11/17/2011

"Chicago Latinos Pay More In Taxes To Government Than They Receive In Return"

and I'm sure the same holds true for the black & white populations. Now how about doing the same study on the ILLEGAL immigrants in Chicago and the near western suburbs?

[Dan Vasquez]

01:07 PM on 11/17/2011

Overall the cost of undocumented workers is offset by the cheap labor:

irps.ucsd.edu/assets/037/11124.pdf

With that said amnesty would actually grow the GDP.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/07/local/la-me-immig7-2010jan07

[chevyliddle]

03:43 PM on 11/17/2011

But, in some cases, that's no better than slave labor and in other cases the wages for legal workers are either kept low or driven lower. I worked in a factory in the near western Chicago suburbs and saw many legal residents and citizens in maintenance and production go without a pay increase from 1985 through 1994 because 50% of the work force in those two departments were illegal and keeping the wages down. We weren't aware of it until immigrations made an unannounced sweep and took 15 employees for further processing and we never saw them again. Not all illegal workers are unskilled and the ones with skills will sell themselves cheaply just for the work.

[Kurfco]

05:00 PM on 11/17/2011

How do you figure?! Dollars illegal workers are producing and spending are already in GDP.

Amnesty does nothing other than increase eligibility for benefits, which just increases cost.

[SuperMex]

12:56 AM on 11/18/2011

Chevyliddle, you should devote your attention to the one (1) percent that are destroying the American way of life. Now were talking mega billions of dollars, perhaps trillions that these disingenuous Americans control.

Undocumented immigration is a problem and needs to be reformed. There may be a slight difference in cost versus added value to their contributions. Having said that, the cost incurred by undocumented immigrants is a "mere drop in the bucket" when compared to the "one (1) percenters." These "one (1) percenters" are literally destroying the American middle class.

US Army
4th Infantry Division
Vietnam
1965-1968

[chevyliddle]

06:39 AM on 11/18/2011

Thanks for your service.
USN 1965 river patrol boat on the Mekong
USN 1964, 66 & 67 fleet oiler in the Tonkin Gulf

[Dan Vasquez]

02:21 AM on 11/17/2011

Siphoned off? That's just stupid, they earned that money the hard way and can spend it any way they want.

[ms schatzi]

02:25 PM on 11/18/2011

While they recieve WIC and free school lunches.

[Satirist1]

03:18 AM on 11/17/2011

Obtuse refusal to accept facts and crudities. Rather typical for this ilk.

[sixty-one]

11:34 PM on 11/16/2011

Well, the Institute for Latino Studies certainly wouldn't be biased, would they?

[Dan Vasquez]

02:22 AM on 11/17/2011

No they are not because it's a peer reviewed academic report. VeryStupid thing to say.

[Satirist1]

03:25 AM on 11/17/2011

Yes the report was peer-reviewed by Belinda Reyes, director of the César E. Chaves Institute. Oh, and the members of Institute for Latino Studies.

No one else.

Nice. When you can get it.

[gemini68]

11:02 AM on 11/17/2011

The numbers are the numbers dear- they can be verified with the US Census which is where they got the data from.

[chevyliddle]

07:06 AM on 11/18/2011

The census only furnishes the population numbers and nationalities and nothing regarding income or tax revenues....dear.

[chevyliddle]

01:12 PM on 11/18/2011

"I'm sorry but are you slow? The US Cenusu Buerau is what is mentioned in the article above- and they do in fact provide data regarding income. Which WAS MY POINT."

No...below is exactly what you said.

"The numbers are the numbers dear- they can be verified with the US Census which is where they got the data from."

The U.S. census, per your statement, DOES NOT include information on your income. The above article only shows the population data regarding Latinos was taken from the U.S. Federal Census (census count). All other information regarding income was taken from a report published by the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies. Are you sure you read the article or are you just slow....dear?

[hrpmap]

11:31 PM on 11/16/2011

The old truism comes to mind "figures lie and liars figure."

[mira chancleta]

12:58 AM on 11/17/2011

"...these hips don't lie"
.....................................Shakira