Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Illinois Sales Taxes Increase In Effect Tuesday

On this story we're going to start with a report from CBS2Chicago:
Effective Tuesday, Illinois consumers will pay more for toiletries, candy, soft drinks and liquor starting Tuesday as lawmakers raise cash to pay for a statewide construction program.
...
To finance $31 billion in capital spending on things like new roads, state lawmakers approved a whole slew of new taxes.

At the grocery store, you'll notice the impact on a long list of everyday items that includes sodas, candy and flavored water as well as grooming supplies like shampoo, toothpaste and deodorant. Their state sales tax rate is rising from 1 percent to 6.25 percent.
Thanks to Concerned Citizens of Chatham, there is another facet of this increased sales tax:
Today begins a series of new state taxes on items like candy, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages. But the levy on these indulgences won't just be going to the state roads, bridges, and public schools. Your "sin tax" might also be paid to a higher power.
As blogger Rob Sherman of Godless in Chicago reports, along with statewide construction, the new tax revenue will support "politically connected" churches, parochial schools and religious ministries.
The 996-page Capital Bill lists more than 50 houses of worship and religious facilities that will receive grants "for costs associated with renovations and improvements" from the Build Illinois Bond Fund, including Epworth United Methodist Church, Saint Patrick High School, Bethel Lutheran Church, St. Ann Catholic School, and Pleasant Ridge Missionary Baptist Church.
Anywhere from $25,000 to $750,000 will be appropriated from the Fund to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for grants to each facility.
Depending on your perspective, this is just another excuse to expand access to "pork". Although there are those who may say that public funds to religious institutions are a good thing. CBS2 never touched upon the issue of where this money was going other than for capital projects such as state roads.

Let's go back to that article for a second. The owner of the Chicago Blackhawks even got into the act opposing this sales tax:
The new taxes aren't going unchallenged. Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz went to court last week attempting to halt the tax hike.

Wirtz is the head of a family liquor distributing empire, but he said the little guy is hurt most by the tax.

It is regressive, hitting the working person the hardest…this approach is arbitrary and inequitable," Wirtz said in a statement last week.
Of course who knows if this tax can be repealed or not. Although the fight against the county's sales tax may have his a new turn with a new Cook County Commissioner appointed (especially important since there is a movement to override a veto against repealing the county sales tax). With that however, there has been difficulties since there are those who are intent on keeping the tax as it currently stands.

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