Day: January 15, 2020

Pot taxes in Chicago could be as high as 41% by July as county moves forward with 3% levy – Chicago Sun-Times

January 15, 2020 10 Comments

That 3% would be in addition to the city’s 3% planned tax and state excise taxes of 10-25%, based on the level of THC, the ingredient in pot that gets users high, in the product purchased. Marijuana products also carry normal sales taxes — which in Chicago are 10.25% — meaning some products could carry taxes of 41.25% starting this summer.

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Quentin Fulks: Outmigration and Illinois’ unfair tax system – Daily Herald

January 15, 2020 17 Comments

Quentin Fulks

Quentin Fulks is the Chairman of Vote Yes For Fairness, a ballot initiative committee working to pass the Fair Tax in Illinois. Presented here, without comment, is his case that “drastic” out-migration is due to the unfairness in our tax system, which would be fixed by a progressive income tax, and that “it’s clear that taxes are not the reason people are leaving Illinois.”

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A quarter of every tax dollar from recreational cannabis sales in Illinois will go to nonprofit groups – Center Square

January 15, 2020 3 Comments

A quarter of every tax dollar generated from recreational cannabis will go to the newly created Restore, Reinvest and Renew program. When she was a state senator, Toi Hutchinson explained what that’ll be spent on.

“That money is specifically going to small community agencies in the areas that have been impacted the most, that do the work on the ground,” Hutchinson said in 2019.

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Aldermen fear setting aside contracts for gay-owned businesses could lead to fraud, fewer contracts for people of color – Chicago Sun-TImes

January 15, 2020 11 Comments

Comment: If set-asides are extended to gays, only 13.6% of Chicago’s population would be left without access to a set-aside – straight, white, males with no handicap, as we detailed earlier. In other words, over 86% of Chicagoans would be entitled to preferential treatment when bidding for city contracts. Maybe it would be easier just to designate the small minority that gets no preference.

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John Kass: Mike Madigan squashes legislative probe of that email about a rape. If he were a Republican, he’d be gone – Chicago Tribune

January 15, 2020 4 Comments

If Madigan were a Republican, his opponents may have likely invoked House Rule 91, to form a legislative commission to examine charges of obstruction of the legislature.

Why? Because Madigan just squashed a legislative investigation of Michael McClain, his closest confidant and a retired lobbyist who’s under a federal criminal investigation. That legislative inquiry would have examined McClain’s email defending a politically connected worker who “kept his mouth shut” about “that rape in Champaign.”

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