Brickbat: Not-So-Sweet 16

The Chicago City Council is considering hiking 16 different taxes and fees. The ideas the council has been asked to consider include an income tax surcharge, a vacant lot tax, traffic congestion charges, and higher taxes on groceries and alcoholic beverages.

Comments

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

"Higher" taxes on groceries? I thought it was almost universal to not tax groceries.

[Stuck in California]

Chicago.

'nuff said.

[defaultdotxbe]

Growing up in IL I always thought it was unusual not to tax groceries. IL does have a reduced tax though, 2% vs the usual 6.25% however the local taxes generally don't exempt them, so where I lived there it was still 5.25% tax (2% state, 1.75% county, 1.5% city) and of course Chicago has even higher city taxes.

[InsaneTrollLogic (Factio Democratica delenda est 5/30/24)]

Yes, there are taxes on groceries in Illinois. The base one is 1% statewide, but counties and municipalities can add additional tax rates. Anything deemed as "candy" gets taxes at the sales tax rate instead of the grocery tax rate.

Oh, that sales tax rate? That also applies to fuel (gasoline and diesel) in Illinois after the gas tax has been applied. Thus, you're paying tax on tax.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

And the state fuel tax just went up 3 cents a gallon on July 1st.

[rbike]

I drive across Illinios occasionally. I never buy gas there. Ever. And I have to wait behind all the Illinois drivers buying gas in Iowa as I live on the border.

[Rossami]

Depends on the state. Here's a decent article on the different state treatment of grocery taxes.

Short version:
- 6 states have no sales tax at all
- 32 states and DC exempt groceries from sales tax
- 5 states tax groceries but at a somewhat lower rate than other goods
- 7 states tax groceries at the same rate as other goods

Note that some states don't consider soda, candy or certain other "bad" foods as groceries and tax them despite the general rules above.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Waaaay back when I was a kid, 1960s, I remember a newspaper article about a legislative kerfuffle over what counted as snacks and what was food, in vending machines, for sales tax purposes. They finally decided that if the little peanut butter crackers were pre-made, that was a taxable snack; but if the peanut butter was in a separate little tub and there was a little plastic bar to spread it on the crackers, that was tax-free food.

[diver64]

They tax them in NC where I live. County tax and I just buy most things in the next one over.

[Jerry B.]

Gotta pay for those hotel rooms for illegal aliens.

[R Mac (5-30-24, sarc’s too drunk to remember what he thinks about it)]

What? A simple one percent food truck tax should more than cover all costs of illegal aliens!

[Isaac Bartram]

State governments aren’t paying for those hotel rooms, the Federal government is.

[Fist of Etiquette]

AKA Invitations to move out.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

New rule: people who flee Blue cities and states for more MAGA regions are welcome, but need to accept common sense voting restrictions, starting with a reasonable waiting period. Say, ten years?

[Michael Ejercito]

I have no problem with that.

[diver64]

How about instituting a "welcome tax" like Quebec does when you move somewhere there? I think it's 15% or something close.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

If they could find a cow and a lantern, they could burn down Chicago more quickly.

[Michael Ejercito]

My longtime Usenet ally, Christopher Charles Morton, wrote this about Chicago.

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/chicago-three-big-reasons-why-murder-city-usa-is-so-unsafe/#comment-2836333

***START QUOTE***

I’ll give you three reasons, having lived there until I joined the Army:
1. The city “government” is as corrupt as any you’ll find in the third world. Members of the city council are in bed with the major gangs.
2. The police department is as corrupt as the “government”, considering itself wholly outside the law. Until relatively recently, there was a home invasion, burglary and kidnapping ring operating INSIDE the most “elite” unit in the department.
3. The population obviously LIKES these things, since they’ve been voting for them since before my grandmother moved there from Nashville… BEFORE WWI.

Black Chicagoans elected and reelected Richard M. Daley for something like twenty+ years, DESPITE the fact that he profited politically from an organized torture ring operating INSIDE the Chicago PD. Most of the known victims of said ring were NOT Norwegian…

Chicago is what it is because the Chicagoans WANT it that way. Sucks to be them.

***END QUOTE***

[AT]

Of course they are. It's all they know.

[LIBtranslator]

Any idea which parties elected these looters?

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

How much do you need?
More. Always more.