Having the highest sales taxes of all the major cities in the country is never a distinction you wish to own as a city. It means that people will be paying more for products and services and this is something that business owners really, really do not like. Well, the business owners in Chicago, Illinois are definitely not going to like what The City has got planned for them.
Namely, effective January 1, 2016, the sales tax in Cook County will be raised to a staggering 10.25 percent which is an increase of exactly one percentage point over the existing one. This will push Chicago into lead when compared to other large cities in the country.
The reason for this is that the county needs money and this increase should generate more than $300 million in revenue every year. They plan on spending $270 million of it on pensions, $25 million on debt service and $10 on roads and infrastructure. The increase was voted on this Wednesday, with commissioners voting 9-7 in support of the increase and with Cook County board President Toni Preckwinkle backing it.
Chicago already faced a 10.25 percent sales tax before, but it was incrementally decreased to the current 9.25 percent. Business owners in the Windy City are already in uproar, saying how this will be very bad for them and how this is the worst plan possible for getting out a recession.
What do you think?
