Union coalition pitches Chicago city income tax : A CTU-backed group wants those with annual household income above $100,000 to pay 3.5 percent a year to City Hall—plus a “LaSalle Street tax” and more. But CTA rides and community college would be free.

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

A coalition of progressive activists and big unions is upping the ante on the call for new revenue to finance help for lower-income Chicagoans, this time proposing not just a “LaSalle Street tax” on financial transactions and restoration of the employer “head tax” but a new city income tax on those who work or live in Chicago.

With a swipe at “wealthy yuppies” and corporations who “don’t pay their fair share,” the group—which includes the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Healthcare Illinois—specifically wants a 3.5 percent tax on household income above $100,000 a year.

The coalition also is proposing to form a municipal bank that would take over the task of investing pension monies and underwriting city bond issues—hopefully for free, or at least for much cheaper prices than conventional financial institutions charge—and to “divest from policing and incarceration” by freezing the size of the Chicago Police Department and substantially cutting its budget, according to Saquib Bhatti, co-executive director of the Chicago-based Action Center on Race & the Economy, which describes itself as “a campaign hub for organizations that work at the intersection of racial justice and Wall Street accountability.”

Illinois currently has a state income tax of 4.95 % adding 3.5% for those living or working in Chicago would be very "dreamy" .....