Chicago:One of the Leaders in Poverty

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Chicago is one of the leaders in something besides corruption:

For Chicago, the poverty rate grew to 21.1 percent in 2004, up from 19.3 percent the previous year. Of cities of more than 1 million, Chicago ranked behind only Philadelphia, with 24.9 percent living in poverty. New York recorded 20.3 percent; Los Angeles was 18 percent.

Do you think having a 9% retail sales tax(which is the highest for a big city) helps those who are poor people? It seems there's a correlation between big cities with high taxes and poor people.