Chicago Wants to Raise Taxes Even Higher

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the city of Chicago is in dire financial straits.Not much talk about cutting the budget.So,like last year the big spenders want to raise taxes even higher:

At budget briefings Friday called to break the bad news, they were told about a laundry list of "nickel-and-dime" increases tailor-made to close the gap without a dreaded property tax increase.

The ideas range from a first-ever, $5 million-a-year tax on delivery companies like UPS and FedEx to another 16-cents-a-pack hike in a cigarette tax that was raised by twice that much last year. The new increase is designed to raise $8 million. Hikes for specific individual items were not included.

A flat-rate ground transportation tax now confined to taxis would be extended to limousine rides to raise $500,000. The city's parking tax would rise once again to bring in $2.5 million, but only on those motorists who leave their cars in lots and garages for more than six hours. Parking meter rates would rise on busy neighborhood commercial strips.

This from a city that has the highest retail sales tax for any big city in the United States.It's hard to maintain a bloated welfare state when 1000 people a month have been leaving Chicago the last few years.As you can see there's not much compassion here for poor people.