Reboot Illinois' Madeleine Doubek looked at five new or increased taxes Illinois and Chicago residents could be subjected to by the end of the summer:
If you happen to live in Chicago, you could easily be facing four or five tax increases.
1. Chicago just started imposing a 9 percent tax on audio and video streaming services including Netflix and Spotify. If you're a minimum wage worker, that ought to take a nice bite out of the minimum wage increase to $10 an hour the city's politicians were so pleased to give you.
2. Chicago and suburban Cook County residents could be paying a higher sales tax in short order as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle tries to persuade a majority of county commissioners to put back on the one-cent increase she built her first campaign around dumping. Preckwinkle says she is pursuing the tax increase because she can't get state lawmakers to sign off on her pension reform plan for the county.
3.Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is talking about a property tax hike of up to $250 million for public schools and, Crain's Chicago Business notes, he could need at least another $328.6 million to cover Chicago police and fire pension funds, too. Property tax experts considered a range of options and projected the public safety pension funds could require tax hikes that ranged from $77 to $224 for the owner of a $250,000 home, depending on who it's structured. Chicago is the biggest, but we know there are scores of other communities around Illinois with police and fire pension funds also in dire straits.
4. And then there's Illinois. Perhaps you've been caught up in the bluster between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan and you've been enjoying picking sides rather than picking apart the policy?
Well, pick at this: a tax increase sure seems to be baked into whatever resolution may come, whenever that might be.
Check out Reboot Illinois to find out what Doubek says all these new taxes mean.
Illinoisans won't know exactly what'll be going on with their taxes in the coming year until the governor and the General Assembly come to a budget agreement in Springfield. So far, there is no end in sight, and the state government shutdown is starting to negatively impact Illinois residents who need the most help from the state.
Check out Reboot Illinois to find out how unavailable funding is affecting Illinois' foster children, disabled and poor residents.
