Chicago rams thru $1.5 BILLION in new taxes, and will borrow another Billion to cover spending

When a system passes a certain level of corruption, there's no peaceful way back.  And the city of Chitcongo--Democrat-ruled for 50 years or so--passed that point some years ago.

City employees--Dem voters, hired by Dem department heads--are lavishly paid, can't be fired, get generous pensions and pay little for their health insurance.  They keep getting pay raises, even though the city is deep in debt and facing a budget deficit of over a BILLION dollars this year.  

So how do ya think the socialists who rule that miserable shithole respond, eh?  Did they lay off city workers?  Stop automatic raises?  Trim benefits?  Close poorly-performing schools?  

Hahahahaha!  Not a chance!  Instead they just passed a budget that increased taxes on city businesses and residents by $535 million.  And an additional new tax of one BILLION dollars, cunningly disguised as "TIF" (explained later).  And  there's not a thing you can do about it except leave--which few can do.

So what taxes did the brilliant Democrat who rule Chitcongo raise?   

They slapped a 15 cent tax on every shopping bag.  Raised the tax on video games (presumably in businesses).  Raised taxes on "sports betting."  Added a new city fee if owners of a vacant building apply for a new mortgage.  Where's the extra cost for the city that justifies that?  What's the logic?

They don't need logic or reasons.  They do it because they want more money, and because they can impose any tax they want.  The courts never block any tax increase by Dems.  Anything the Dems can think of to tax, they tax.  They increased the tax on liquor, and "ground transport," which probably means taxis, Uber, Lyft and limos.

$416 million of the new tax revenue Chitcongo is counting on is titled "Increase in cloud computing taxes."  If I were a business owner I'd set up an office in an adjacent state, let it do all the comms with "the cloud," and have my office in Chitcongo only communicate with my out-of-state office.  It'd be amusing to watch the thieves who run Chitcongo sue to tax intra-corporate communication--as they surely would.

But the bulk of the new taxes--a whopping one BILLION dollars--is slated to come from "TIF."  Specifically a "one-time TIF sweep."  Since you never heard about it, it can't apply to you, right?

TIF is "Tax  Increment Financing"--another in the endless list of cunningly disguised tax cities use to take more money from developers.  It's the hot new money-grabbing measure for city rulers because it doesn't raise ALL property taxes, just on certain areas.  And because it's only on certain areas it doesn't have to be approved by voters.  Nice, eh?

But even $1.535 Billion in new taxes won't cover all the money the Democrat rulers of Chitcongo DEMAND to spend, so they plan to borrow even more money: $450 million.  This is the time-honored way all Democrat politicians (and many RINOs) operate, since they never worry about repaying the borrowed money.

Because bond underwriters know the city will eventually default on all debt, the city's bond ratings are almost at junk levels, and the new plan to borrow yet another $450 million will see those ratings drop even lower since the problem of overspending is chronic, just as it is with federal spending.

One thing the rulers didn't do (yet) is adopt the proposal by the city's black socialist mayor Brandon Johnson to tax every company with 500 or more employees $400 per employee every year.  But you can see that one coming, because back in 1973 the city imposed a head tax of $48 per employee per year.  They repealed it 11 years ago under a Dem mayor who thought it was a "job killer."  
  But no one saw businesses leaving, so the communist Johnson thought "Why not bring it back--with a tiny bit more bite, small enough that large businesses won't leave?"  And he proposed $250 per employee per year on companies with over 100 employees.  Now that's been changed to $400 per employee per year, but only on companies with 500 employees.

Democrat policy: tax everything.  If some things become uneconomical, screw 'em.  Let 'em go on welfare, cuz the state covers that, eh?  Masterful policy, cupcake.  Keep taxing productive people so you can keep giving pay raises to city employees.  Makes perfect sense.

Source:
 
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-adopts-16-6b-budget-adds-535m-in-taxes/