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If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
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As I mentioned before the Dems will dangle some small % to entice us to vote for this. What will the initial % be? 5%/10%. I would consider a 50% reduction a good starting point but that still is not enough. Colorado is .6%/Arizona is about .8% / Indiana is 1% for residential and about 2% for commercial for total value. In Indiana’s case in exchange for the 1% property cap they instituted a 1% local income tax for almost half the counties some counties are 1.5% and one county is about 3%. Someone needs to crunch #’s to see… Read more »
Keep this one number in mind: Total property taxes in IL are $30B (20 for residential and 10 for commercial). So, a 50% cut would cost $15B! The new progressive tax will raise only $3.5B, optimistically, and it has already been promised away several times over on other things. Meaningful property tax relief from the progressive tax is mathematically impossible.
Mark I agree. Just crunched some #’s. Chicago has approx 1.2 mil households at $55K average income that’s $660Bil times 1% local income tax= $6.6B plus there is approx $813 Billion in total property value times 1% cap = $8.13 Bil for a total of $14.73B now add the rest of Cook county. State tax could be lowered to under 4% maybe back to 3%. Could you check if my figures are correct. I may be off quite a bit. Thanks
Sorry! Income numbers are off. Income should be $66B times lets say 2%=$1.32 B plus $8.13= $9.45 billion. Now add sales and other tax’s and we are way over $10B.The rest of Cook county and the state would be considerably more. Without spending cuts what are we to do. Mark. Did you check out John Stossel Stupid in America 5-6-12? Most of our problems stem from too many school districts with too much administrative bloat. When will we the taxpayer tell the districts can you educate our kids for X $$$’s if not we will find someone else to teach… Read more »
I’m afraid you lost me on lots of those numbers and your method. Would take a long time to figure out.
Total approx income from people in Chicago is $66 billion. Total value of all property in Chicago is $813 billion. So a 1.5% tax on total property value would yield $12.9 billion in property tax’s. 1.5% local income tax would yield another $1B. Total Chicago budget is $10.67B. Bottom line many people whose home values have increased can not now afford the tax’s because their income has not. It is like paying tax’s on unrealized stock gains yearly before you cash them in. Hope this simplifies They are doing this in Indiana. Local county income tax-personal property tax in exchange… Read more »
Why would the machine offer prop owners a dime in exchange for gaduate tax passage? Instead, it going to be gun to the head–you better pass grad tax or we’re confiscating your home, 401k, ira, paycheck..not that they havent done a good job so far..