* My newspaper column from this past May…
During the campaign, Johnson proposed a 1%-2% “Big Banks Securities and Speculation Tax” that would raise $100 million. So, naturally, there’s worry he will try to use his considerable contacts in the General Assembly and CTU’s clout to persuade Gov. J.B. Pritzker to reverse his position on allowing Chicago to impose a transaction tax and ease the city’s structural deficit.
When he was asked last month about the transaction tax, Pritzker said, “Obviously, what we all want is a thriving financial services economy in the state and the city. I have not stood for a transaction tax, because I think it would be easy for those companies’ servers to move out of the state.” […]
I reached out to the two legislative leaders to see where they stood on allowing home rule units like Chicago impose a tax on electronic transactions.
Spokespersons for both Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Chris Welch said their bosses opposed the idea.
This thing is off the table.
The actual quotes…
“Harmon is opposed,” said Senate President Don Harmon’s spokesperson John Patterson after checking with his boss, who employed Johnson early in his adult life.
“He is on the same page as the governor and Harmon,” said House Speaker Chris Welch’s spokesperson Jaclyn Driscoll about her employer, a Johnson friend.
So, all three state leaders are opposed and the mayor hasn’t revived the idea. But that didn’t stop a major news media outlet from claiming it is still somehow alive.
* From a new Bloomberg story entitled “Trillion-dollar industry powering Chicago is at risk of leaving”…
The letters are stamped all over the hallways of Chicago’s giant skyscrapers and grand office buildings. DRW, IMC, CME, Cboe.
These are some of the derivatives firms that collectively handle trillions of dollars a year in trades, greasing the wheels of global markets with everything from stock options to corn futures. Most of them have called Chicago home for decades — providing thousands of jobs within the city’s $75 billion finance industry.
Now, the firms’ commitment to the Windy City is being tested by some $800 million in taxes proposed by a new mayor staring down a budget gap that’s swelled to half a billion dollars. One idea is a levy on financial transactions, which has alarmed companies already worried about a jump in crime that shows few signs of abating.
Behind the scenes, market makers and exchanges are working together to press their case with policymakers, with firms that typically compete with each other sharing data to help explain their economic benefits to Chicago. While executives haven’t explicitly threatened to leave, in private conversations it’s clear they will consider quitting the city if crime remains an issue and the financial transaction tax passes.
The financial transaction tax is dead. Period. It’s not even being proposed. If they want to blame crime, that’s their right, but they shouldn’t hide behind the non-existent threat of a financial transaction tax.
…Adding… From comments…
It’s not pining. It’s passed on. This proposal is no more. It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to meet its maker. It’s a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn’t printed it again in Bloomberg, it’d be pushing up the daisies. Its metabolic processes are now history. It’s off the twig. It’s kicked the bucket, it’s shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible. This is an ex proposal.