The Tribune, taxes and Stroger
Wednesday, Apr 22, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Chicago Tribune, which has a “calendar” on its editorial page displaying the number of days since the Cook County Board increased the sales tax and the number of days until the next election, says it particularly likes expanding the sales tax base…
[Cook county Assessor Jim Houlihan] wants the broadest possible tax at the lowest possible rate. Specifically, he would cut the state portion of the sales tax from the current 5 percent to 3.25 percent and expand the tax to include services.
Could we cut the rate further if the Trib paid sales taxes on printing equipment, ink and paper? I’m sure the Mothership wouldn’t like that.
Hey, I’m kinda intrigued by the service tax myself, but all those service providers surely won’t be happy. At least, they never have been in the past.
More…
Houlihan acknowledges a reality the governor ignores—that the corporate-income tax is no longer very useful. Only about 20 percent of corporations in Illinois pay it.
Yeah, and Tribune Co. was one of those non-paying 80 percenters at least once itself.
Also, notice how they just breezed by Houlihan’s proposal to raise the personal income tax by 42 percent? I doubt they’d give that tax hike loving Todd Stroger guy that kind of break.
* And speaking of Todd Stroger, he has just really screwed everything up…
Donna Dunnings said she was “shocked” when her cousin, Cook County President Todd Stroger, fired her at 10 p.m. last Thursday over the potential political fallout concerning her dealings with her former secretary, Tony Cole.
Donna Dunnings says she doesn’t harbor any ill will to her cousin, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, for firing her from her position as county chief financial officer.
In an exclusive interview with the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday, Dunnings said she never had a physical relationship with Cole — a busboy with a criminal past whom Stroger hired in October to a county patronage job, promoted to a $61,000-a-year human resources post and fired earlier this month for lying about his criminal past on a job application. Cole also told the Sun-Times after he was fired that he was not involved with Dunnings.
Stroger “felt with all the allegations and things surrounding the whole situation that it would be better for me to step down,” Dunnings said. “I was shocked, but that happens in life. I trusted his judgment and his leadership. I know he would not do anything that was not in my best interest.”
She shouldn’t have trusted him. Check this out…
Cole, a steakhouse busboy turned county patronage worker, said his first jailhouse calls when he was arrested in January for violating an order of protection were directly to Cook County President Todd Stroger.
“Matter of fact, I didn’t call [Dunnings]. I was calling Todd. You know what I’m saying. I was calling President Stroger and I was calling friends of his. And that’s how Gene got involved, if you want to be frank,” Cole said in an interview with the Sun-Times last week.
“Gene” is Stroger’s top spokesman Eugene Mullins, a former Chicago police officer and the president’s boyhood pal.
“Gene Mullins also was coming to bail me out . . . but he said that he forgot the funds and that’s how [Dunnings] was forced to pay it,” Cole said. “Initially, from my understanding, Mullins was supposed to have the funds to come bail me out. They came together.”
You get the feeling there’s something else going on here?
- bored now - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 7:22 am:
i’m pretty sure you’ll see the tony cole quote in campaign advertising. probably more than once…
- hmm - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 7:40 am:
They called houlihan’s plan a better way to solve the budget deficit, but the only piece that addresses that is the income tax hike, which they skipped over.
Houlihan’s sales tax idea is revenue neutral.
Where the brains there?
- Cassandra - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 7:54 am:
Have Ms. Dunnings’ papers actually been processed?
On Chicago Tonight last night someone mentioned rumors that she’s not really gone.
Will she resurface in another county job, conveniently at the same exalted $175k but way less responsibility and visibility.
- Hank - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 8:30 am:
I agree with you Cassandra, she will have another less visible job soon if not already. Maybe even the boy toy as well unless he talks too much
- 32nd Ward Roscoe Village - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 8:32 am:
From today’s BNA Daily Tax Report: “Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) April 21 swore in Mike Quigley to serve as representative for Illinois’ 5th congressional district…Quigley was permitted to take the oath of office even though the certificate certifying the election results was not present.” What is up with that? Jesse White’s certification stamp broken since RRB?
And now, who is replacing Quigley on CCB?
- muon - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 8:48 am:
Houlihan’s sales tax proposal may be revenue neutral, but it would perform better over time. The service sector has been growing at a faster rate than sales of goods. The sales tax on goods lags behind inflation so it continually leaves the state short. Taxing goods and services together at a lower rate would better match the rate of inflation.
- Tiny - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 8:57 am:
If Stroger wins the primary, Peraica may stand a chance. Scary.
- Hank - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:02 am:
I’m not a fan of the Toddler but the Trib calendar has always seemed biased to me. Where is the calendar on the next mayoral election? Daley has sold, stole and raised fees on everything except air (so far)
- Concerned Observer - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:12 am:
I really don’t think Stroger will win the primary, but that’s beside the point.
There has to be something else going on. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out WHAT.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:13 am:
Nigeria has higher standards than this.
- Cal Skinner - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:14 am:
Newspapers are taxed in some states.
Why don’t I ever hear about doing that here?
- KN - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:15 am:
Peraica won’t make it out of the primary.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:18 am:
There is a big piece missing from the Cole-Dunnings-Stroger puzzle. Who knows what it is, but you know it won’t be missing for long.
- Stones - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:29 am:
These guys have to get together and get their story straight!
- Legaleagle - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:40 am:
The sales tax should cover both internet purchases into Illinois and services (including legal fees), the gas tax should be a percentage rather than a flat rate per gallon, and ‘entitlements’ such as state pensions must be limited going forward. No need for any other tax increases.
- Anonymous45 - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:49 am:
point of information: Is Todd Stroger married?
- Truthful James - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:51 am:
Had a vision, last night: Roland Burris was running for County Board Chairman and Todd Stroger was in the Senate primary.
The back story on Mr. Cole is interesting. He was once a college scholarship basketball athlete at a major institution. Had he played his cards right, he had it made.
- Phineas J. Whoopee - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:52 am:
Suffice it to say that bailing employees out of prison goes beyond the scope of any job description. When it entails government employees bailing other employees out of the very facilities they manage it is ludicrous. Doing it twice is either loyalty run amuck, love or blackmail.
But to have a complete low life like Cole be able to make a phone call from jail to the Cook County Board President’s office and get people to “snap to” and get him out of jail-twice-is (I really don’t have a word for it). All I can say is Todd Stroger certainly is an understanding boss.
- thinking out loud - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:54 am:
Perhaps the relationship was between cole and stroger not dunnings.
- Objective Dem - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:56 am:
The fact that Cole contacted Stroger directly changes the story for me.
I can see Cole as the type of person who is in a junior position but knows the people in charge. When he gets in trouble, he uses his connections and thinks it is (literally) a get out of jail free card.
Stroger may have responded by sending Mullins because he is a nice guy or because Cole threatened him with exposing secrets. After the fact, they realized Cole didn’t know anything that damaging (politically or criminally) but was a problem, so they fired him. If he knew something serious, he would have been moved quietly to another job in the County or elsewhere.
I also suspect with Dunnings it was the last straw. Don’t forget the budget debacle a few months ago, when the board received budget books with the wrong numbers. Dunning always attracted criticism because she is Todd’s cousin and in charge of finances.
- Anonymous45 - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 10:04 am:
thinking out loud: that’s what I was getting at with my question…
- Plutocrat03 - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 10:22 am:
The problem with tax exemptions is that it only benefits certain people.
The graphic arts exemption always mystified me.
The expansion of taxation into the service sector will eat up countless hours of tax filing from hairdressers, lawn services, and untold tiny businesses
- Wumpus - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 10:24 am:
Rich, this is a joke, but I understand you may have to do what you have to do.
I demand an investigation into the relationship between Stroger and Cole, forget Dinnings! Dead girl, live boy, so on and so forth.. I keed!
- Anonymous45 - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 10:42 am:
Wumpus: I guess Todd gives out his personal phobe numbers to all new hires in case they ned to be bailed out of jail in the middle of the night…if he can’t go, or needs to sleep in, he wakes up his cousin, CFO of Cook County, or his political right hand guy…makes sense, right?
NOT!
- Vote Quimby! - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 10:43 am:
==The expansion of taxation into the service sector will eat up countless hours of tax filing from hairdressers, lawn services, and untold tiny businesses ==
No, I think they just won’t pay it, making the ‘gray economy’ even larger.
- Third Generation Chicago Native - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 10:54 am:
This Cole/Stroger/Dunnings is getting to be a bigger mess, and stories are changing. This should be investigated thoroughly, it seems there is still a lot left to uncover.
- The Doc - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 11:46 am:
===The expansion of taxation into the service sector will eat up countless hours of tax filing from hairdressers, lawn services, and untold tiny businesses===
That’s life in a democracy. Such a move, coupled with a meaningful reduction in the sales tax rate, is overdue, especially as the service sector continues to grow in proportion to goods.
What’s the alternative? The stigma of the nation’s highest sales tax in Chicago, and more importantly, a big gaping hole in the state budget.
- ConservativeVeteran - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 11:48 am:
The state sales tax rate is 6.25%, which is more than three times the Cook Co. rate of 1.75%. Last year, Cook Co. voters, who were angry at the county board, should have been more angry at all of the state legislators who supported the last sales tax rate increase, which was passed in 2005.
- Hank - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 11:54 am:
Per the Sixth Ward blog and WLS TV, Stroger has thrown the race card on the Dunnings/Cole deal
We are going to need a new race card as the current one is tattered and bent from overuse by Burris and DM Cobb. Now Stroger and I hear JJJ is negotiating for it’s use if his Blago situation deteriorates any further
- Wumpus - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 11:59 am:
Hank, there are 52 suited cards in each deck, but we only get stuck with a bunch of jokers.
- Hank - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 12:04 pm:
So true Wumpus
- Hmmm - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 12:31 pm:
I notice that rumor and innuendo is usually forbidden on this forum but this question kind of illicts it.. and look at the above personal rumors to prove it. What gives? I’m just saying…
- Quinn T. Sential - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 2:04 pm:
Speaking of mother Tribune, how could you miss the irony of assistant features editor and writer of the Tribune’s “Recession Diaries” blog Lou Carlozo, being let go in the latest newsroom RIF yesterday?
- steve schnorf - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 5:54 pm:
The state sales tax rate is 5%, not 6.25, and I don’t remember the state sales tax being raised in years, unless you are talking specifically about the RTA counties
- party of one - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 8:14 pm:
hmmm has a point but that story the other day about how stoger hired cole after seeing him at Ruth Chris Steak House where he was bussing tables is kind of creepy. Who hire a bussboy into an administrative job without even knowing him? Then he ends up with strogers private number and strogers cousin and trusted staffer go bail him out?? C’mon…just the story is innuendo you don’t even need to add water and mix.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:03 pm:
Steve-
IL Dept of Revenue says 6.25%
http://www.revenue.state.il.us/businesses/
taxinformation/sales/rot.htm
To be technically correct, I believe the state collects 6.25% of which 1% is distributed back to the local agencies in proportion to where it was collected.
- Emily Booth - Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:28 pm:
I’m guessing the relationship is between Cole and Todd and not Cole and Dunnings.
- Lynn S - Thursday, Apr 23, 09 @ 12:27 am:
Oh my!!
The whole Cole/Stroger/Dunnings triangle could get verrrrryyyyy interesting…
Did anyone else see the Trib quick poll on the editorial page today: “Would you vote for Todd Stroger?” Response: 98.5% NO, 1.5% yes. Not looking too good…