5 Comments - Cassandra - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 8:46 am: Hmm…so, we’re planning on raising the statewide cigarette tax to fund huge increases in state spending even though Chicago is reporting less than expected revenues from their cigarette tax and the city is likely going to have to raise taxes to make up the difference. Sounds like a setup to me. Just like the tax on small employers which is supposed to fund universal health care, or almost universal. Get the program up there based on shaky revenues, run out of money, hit us up for an income tax increase saying you can’t possibly cut whatever it is. Illinois taxpayers are so, so pluckable. And so anxious to protect the wealthy among us. A progressive income tax with a surcharge on the wealthy would take care of all these funding problems. But nary a whisper of that. - Holdingontomywallet - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 8:51 am: I see a great opportunity for the placement of new political empolyees. The state can create a new division of “smoking police” to enforce the smoking ban. Of course, the program would be based out of Chicago and they would have unlimited travel expenses. The possibilities are endless… - FED UP - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 9:06 am: Chicagos expected revenue from the cig tax is falling short and other sources of revenue are needed. The cig taxes are great for public health but are not a good revenue stream. any projected revenue from cig tax will be greatly overstated. Cook Co cig tax does not meet projected revenue and now chicagos cig tax does not meet projected revenue. problem is the money is already spent. So higher property taxes will be the answer in chicagoand cook co what will the answer be for the state? - Kevin Highland - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 1:11 pm: Cassandra, There is nothing progressive about punishing the hardworking people who have managed to accrue some wealth by making them pay a higher percentage of taxes than any other person in the state. Their 3% is still going to a higher dollar amount than my 3%. BTW, I’m one of the middle class in case you think I’m a closet wealthy trying to protect my horde. - Garp - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 1:11 pm: - FED UP - Thursday, Jul 26, 07 @ 3:29 pm: Garp you are either misinformed or a liar. A quick survey finds over 80 Detectives assigned to identity theft in the cpd yes these crimes are more complicated and victims often dont live in the same jurisdiction as where the crime occured making prosecution more difficult. A lot more could and should be done for this type of crime but to say only 1 or 2 officers are assigned to it is assine and ignorant. - Garp - Friday, Jul 27, 07 @ 1:07 pm: Fed Up, I am not a liar-I had my credit card stolen and the guy actually used it to deliver a pizza to his home as well as pay direct tv bills. I would have thought that might tip off the cops as to whom the thief was but I was informed by the officer I spoke to that it was just him and another cop working on credit card theft and I was better off getting my money back from the bank and that they don’t have the manpower to follow through. They may have officers assigned to theft but not this type of theft. I don’t know where you get your stats but experience is the best teacher. But maybe you believe everything you read. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.