Tax explainers
Thursday, Mar 7, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois Public Radio has been running stories this week about Gov. JB Pritzker’s tax and revenue proposals. They’re all worth a read…
* Unpacking Pritzker’s Tax Proposals: MCO Tax
* Unpacking Pritzker’s Tax Proposals: Gambling
* Unpacking Pritzker’s Tax Proposals: Cigarette And Vaping Taxes
That MCO explainer was particularly helpful to me.
* Meanwhile…
A bill levying a 7-cent tax on plastic and paper shopping bags advanced out of the state Senate’s revenue committee Wednesday with its sponsor promising to bring an amended proposal back to the committee in the coming weeks.
There was unanimous approval to advance the bag tax, Senate Bill 1240, from five Democrats and two Republicans present at the committee. […]
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association filed in support. Rob Karr, IRMA’s president, said the group is supportive because of the comprehensiveness of the plan in its promotion of solid waste management.
He also said every bag tax passed around the country thus far has given a portion back to retailers to administer the cost.
The Illinois Restaurant Association filed in opposition to the bill. Currently, SB 1240 does not contain exemptions for carry-out bags used at restaurants, which are part of the legislation in Chicago.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:14 am:
It’s interesting how the FDA and it’s UK counterpart have differed on vaping (the FDA hostile, the UK largely welcoming). I think it’d be easier for vapers to skirt the tax: when you buy vape stuff out of state or in the mail you’re buying small bottles of liquids or cartridges, not cartons of cigarettes.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:17 am:
–Pritzker has included sports gambling licensing fees to go toward what the administration calls “essential services”. He is counting on $200 million from 20 licenses at $10 million each, with an annual renewal fee of $5,000.–
What is envisioned here? What will the 20 be? Sports books at casinos? Standalone sports books?
Or was this just a way to hit a $200 million number in the runup to the budget address?
- Sue - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:25 am:
Is the 21 million the bag tax will generate worth doing? Seems kind of specious
- DuPage - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:27 am:
I had previously been told the tax was on plastic because plastic never breaks down, often ending up in oceans or other places where they are a hazard to animals. Paper bags don’t do that kind of harm, so would not be taxed. Somehow this has morphed into a tax on paper as well, seems like a bait and switch. It makes me think the primary goal is not to help the environment as much as it is to collect extra tax money.
- City Zen - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:37 am:
So the bag tax is on paper too and up from 5 to 7 cents? OK.
How about a 10 cent rebate per transaction for anyone who brings their own bags (or goes bagless)?
- City Zen - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:45 am:
SB1240 states:
(1) the retailer shall retain $0.02 per bag
(2) the wholesaler shall retain $0.02 per bag
(3) $0.03 per bag shall be deposited into the Checkout Bag Tax Fund.
All this so the state can collect 3 cents per bag?!
- asking - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:46 am:
If the bag tax causes people to start using their own bags, what about all the other uses for the plastic bags once you have gotten them.. there was just an article in the Decatur paper the other day about using them to make mats for homeless people. Our church as well as other organizations use the to package food items to give to people who are food insecure. What happens to those programs when they need to start paying for the bags in addition to the items for the people?
- Southwest Sider - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:46 am:
I am up for the bag tax, because it is far more important than revenue. It is environmentally responsible to minimize on one-time-use plastics. I seem to remember another fine idea - the soda tax - had pushback. So he needs to weigh the risks in advancing this bill.
- Pick a Name - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:53 am:
We will bring our own bags when we visit the grocery store, they will get zilch from us.
Easy personal decision.
- zatoich - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:55 am:
MCO tax: “To put it bluntly: Insurance companies would eat that tax.” Please, MCOs will simply increase their denial rate to show how much money they are saving the state. Safety net hospitals and community based providers who work under Medicaid contracts with MCOs will eat the tax.
- James - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 10:58 am:
For the MCO (Managed Care Organizations) tax, I don’t see how Greg Harris can say it won’t be passed on to the consumer. Easy to say, hard to do.
- A Jack - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 11:01 am:
How would a bag tax work with self-checkout? I would assume you would have to purchase the bags before finishing your check out. But will there be someone counting every bag to ensure you didn’t accidentally grab an extra one? And if you do, what is the penalty for “bag lifting?”
- Responsa - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 11:03 am:
==Somehow this has morphed into a tax on paper as well, seems like a bait and switch. It makes me think the primary goal is not to help the environment as much as it is to collect extra tax money.==
You don’t say.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 11:09 am:
Jack - at the end the machine asks how many store bags you’re using (or if you brought your own) and then adds the tax to the bill. Honor system, though I was at a Walmart grocery in Lincoln Park once and the “machine monitor” employee came around and only gave the bags afterwards.
Still think the bag tax is great PR for the GOP - I’d rather raise the gas tax like Michigan is considering to help the environment (I know you can do both, but the bag tax hits people more frequently and is more obvious…)
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 11:12 am:
Pick a Name, that is exactly what happened in Chicago with the bag tax. Very few people use them now. We never do, we bei g our own bags. It’s great for the environment.
- Rabid - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 11:13 am:
You can grow as many tobacco plants as you need
- Deputy Registrar - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 11:14 am:
>
A grocery store that I shop at in Springfield already does this. 5 cents off per bag. They count my bags before they begin to bag the groceries and I get 5 cents off per bag, even when they don’t end up using all the bags I’ve brought with me.
- Deputy Registrar - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 11:23 am:
My post should have had this quote at the beginning:
How about a 10 cent rebate per transaction for anyone who brings their own bags
Apologies that it was inadvertently left off.
- Going nuclear - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 11:34 am:
Plastic bag taxes can make an environmental difference. After several European countries imposed small fees on single-use plastic shopping bags, the number of plastic bags strewn on the ocean floor went down by 30%.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 11:56 am:
I think of two things when I think of the bag tax. I used to drive around Chicago and take photos of plastic bags in trees. I would get sad when spring would come because the leaves would hide the bags. This winter I hardly see any bags in trees. I guess I need to make a photo junket to the suburbs.
The second thing is my mother’s garage. For years my mom would go to Jewel to buy groceries and put the plastic bags in the corner of the garage. Never thought about it much. I left home forty years ago. Over the years I had no need to go in her garage when I would come over to visit. When she got sick ten years ago she had to go to a home. Us kids had to clean up the house. When I went to the garage there as a mountain of plastic bags about 4 or 5 feet wide and up to the ceiling, about 10 feet.
A fee for plastic bags is a good thing. I can always take photos of something else.
- City Zen - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 1:17 pm:
==When I went to the garage there as a mountain of plastic bags about 4 or 5 feet wide and up to the ceiling, about 10 feet.==
Use those bags to create a sculpture of a tree with plastic bags stuck in it.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 1:25 pm:
That was ten years ago. I no longer have them. Can bags be reused in a 3D printer?
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 1:32 pm:
City Zen, excellent idea by the way, if I did still have those bags. One question, if I melted them would the fumes make me want to donate money to IPI?
- Anotheretiree - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 1:35 pm:
==Sue Specious== Since it takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to break down,its not specious to recognize their true cost with a tax.
- anon - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 1:44 pm:
Anotherretiree = If the purpose of the tax is to lessen use of plastic bags, why are paper bags taxed as well?
- Anothretiree - Thursday, Mar 7, 19 @ 2:06 pm:
==Paper bags== Agree they shouldn’t be. Paper is harmless cellulose.