Courtesy of Mish.
On May 4th I wrote Beware, the Tax Man Has Eyes on You: Potential Hike for Illinoisans is Staggering.
Six months ago, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel warned that without state legislation to modify the structure of police and fire pensions and implement a “smart funding formula,” Chicago property tax bills would “explode” in 2016.
Today I report, the tax man hath arrived.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel says Now is the Time to Hike Taxes.
The “explosion” that Emanuel warned about in mid-March hit Chicago Tuesday as the mayor unveiled his $7.8 billion budget for 2016, and it wasn’t pretty — even with the risky assumption that Gov. Bruce Rauner will sign legislation giving Chicago 15 more years to ramp up to 90 percent funding of police and fire pensions.
Emanuel’s $712 million package of tax and fee hikes includes a four-year $588 million property tax increase for police and fire pensions and school construction; a $9.50-a-month garbage collection fee; $13 million in higher fees for building permits; a $1 million tax on e-cigarettes and $48 million in fees and surcharges on taxicabs and ride-sharing services that have siphoned business away from them.
The phased-in property tax increase would be the largest in Chicago history. Even so, the garbage fee has emerged as the biggest lightning rod — and Emanuel fully understands why.
It’s a new fee for a service many homeowners believe, “is kind of baked in” to the normal property tax bill that would add $114 to the annual cost heaped on 613,000 Chicago owners of single-family homes, two-, three- and four-flats that still get city pickups. Senior citizens would get a 50 percent discount.
Emanuel said the dire alternative to a property tax increase is 2,500 police layoffs, 2,000 fewer firefighters, 48 fire station closings and twice-a-month garbage collection, instead of weekly pickups.
[Alderman Will] Burns agreed there is simply no other way out, but to place the burden squarely on homeowners — with both the $588 million property tax increase and the garbage collection fee.
“I am out of magic beans and magic pixie dust,” Burns said.
Dire Predictions
The Chicago Tribune reports Emanuel Paints Dire Future Without Record Property Tax Hike.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel called on the city’s 50 aldermen Tuesday to summon the courage to pass the largest property tax increase in modern Chicago history, and told them they could sell it to voters by painting a dire, if not quite dystopian, alternative.
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