The Chicago Tribune reports:
Bears fans pouring into Soldier Field on Sunday may not notice as they wait with anticipation for the kickoff against the Minnesota Vikings, but City Hall will have its hand in their pockets.Theft through majority voting to support a corrupt patronage army.
The price of their tickets includes a hefty 8 percent "amusement tax."
But then, it's not easy to keep track of all the times the city dings you because it has about two dozen different -- and sometimes obscure and stealthy -- ways to do it.
Everybody knows about the property tax and the fact that the city gets a portion of the sales tax.
But buy a six-pack of Pepsi or a liter of Dr Pepper, and your bill includes a special soft-drink levy on top of the sales tax. Phone service? You pay one tax for each line and another based on the size of your bill. Buy a new tire, and you're hit with a special tax of a buck a tread. And you're taxed twice on every gas bill and electric bill.
Hit by rising costs and revenues that are lagging behind them, the city faces a $193 million shortfall next year, and Mayor Richard Daley will propose more bites from the apple Wednesday. Most will come in the form of increases to current taxes, but there could be one new levy added to the already formidable list: a 10-cent tax on bottled water.
"This is a growing list," said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a tax watchdog group. "The city and some of the other units of government in northeastern Illinois have sought out new sources of revenue. Those are appropriate use taxes if you are able to make the case you are providing services related to the tax. In the case of the tire tax, the cost of recycling or servicing local roads can be connected.
"[But] I don't think most Chicagoans are cognizant of who is responsible for which of the government services they receive, and there is little opportunity for citizens to get a comprehensive list" of what they pay.
The idea is to spread the pain by getting money from a wide variety of sources, most of them relatively small, although a controversial staff proposal Daley has been considering would increase property taxes by $108 million, a jump of about 15 percent.
Some of the taxes imposed by the city are paid exclusively by Chicago residents. People with phone service, for example, get a 7 percent "telecommunications tax" on their bill as well as a monthly assessment of $1.25 per line to help defray the cost of the city's 911 center. People with cars pay from $30 to $90 a year for city stickers, known in tax collector parlance as the "wheel tax."
