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Emanuel tax break plan inches forward in House

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Illinois

* Just remember, a committee vote ain’t a floor vote. Tribune…

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to double the homeowner exemption to blunt the impact of his proposed record property tax increase received initial approval from a House committee Tuesday, though it’s far from a done deal.

The measure, which would raise the exemption from $7,000 to $14,000 in the city, passed the panel 8-5 with all Democratic votes. Republicans and business groups opposed the plan, saying it unfairly placed the burden of the tax increase on businesses.

Counties also would be able to opt in to the tax exemption, though individual municipalities could not.

“This is a fine example of Chicago making its own rules and having their bad practice spread across the state,” said Michael Reever, a lobbyist for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. […]

The legislation could receive a full vote on the House floor Tuesday, though it faces a tough hurdle. It will take 71 votes to pass, but Democrats have just 70 active members pending the appointment Tuesday evening of a replacement for Rep. Esther Golar of Chicago, who died last month. Forcing Republicans to vote on the matter puts them in the tricky position of being on the record voting either for or against tax relief, though they could also vote “present.”

* Crain’s…

During a hearing before the Revenue Committee in Springfield, Deputy Mayor Steve Koch, testifying for the city, suggested that Preckwinkle had dropped her opposition to the proposal on grounds that aging county computers could not be reprogrammed in a timely manner to handle it.

Preckwinkle’s “initial” statement to the Crain’s editorial board came before she had a chance to “talk with technical experts,” Koch told the committee. And in fact, the president now has “modified” her position, with the city having little doubt the technical tweaks can be made.

But Preckwinkle spokesman Frank Shuftan strongly disputes that.

Informed of Koch’s comments, Shuftan emailed me: “We have not modified our position. We sent the mayor a letter (on Oct. 16) expressing numerous concerns about his proposal. We did not receive a direct response, only a fact sheet and a copy of the bill.”

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:10 pm

Comments

In 2010, the county tax computers were using a system written in COBOL. Does Koch really know where to find COBOL programmers on short notice, or is he full of it?

Comment by SammyG Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:21 pm
Something else they might consider, statewide, would be to raise the income limit on the senior citizen assessment freeze. It has not been adjusted in many years.

Comment by DuPage Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:34 pm
Around the turn of the century there were a lot of programmers learning COBOL - apparently those old machines had millenium problems. I liked COBOL myself - it reads a bit like normal English - and it might still be in use today if the keepers had added object oriented capabilities in a timely fashion.

Comment by lake county democrat Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:37 pm
=== Does Koch really know where to find COBOL programmers on short notice, or is he full of it? ===

Perhaps CMS could loan them some?

Comment by Juvenal Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:42 pm
The State has a number of COBOL programmers, they’re all over the place. It is easy to find as many as you need.

Comment by Rufus Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:58 pm
According to ibm there were over 200 billion lines of cobol code in use as of 2013. Another study says the average american interacts with a program written in cobol 13 times per day. Its excuses. The language something is written in, especially something as mainstram as Cobol, is really not an issue to completeing a task.

Comment by Union Dues Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 3:00 pm
For crying out loud, you don’t oppose a policy because it makes life rough for tne IT guys.

“I’m sorry, but our computer masters oppose this change.”

Comment by Wordslinger Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 4:03 pm
“For crying out loud, you don’t oppose a policy because it makes life rough for tne IT guys.”
———–

You better think really, really, REALLY hard if it’s going to delay tax bills. Because that’s serious money. And this could delay tax bills.

And here’s the problem. You’re not going to know until you get really into the process. I mean mid January/February into the process. And reversing the system at that point isn’t really an option. You get to tough it out.

You really ready to take that type of gamble? It’s not just the City of Chicago at risk them, it’s all the Cook County tax districts which are calculated using the Cook County tax extension system (except for overlap counties where the majority of the valuation is located outside of Cook county).

You puts your money down and you takes your chances - but don’t underestimate the complexity of what you are trying to do. And the risks involved.

You’re not fighting ‘computer masters’ here - you are fighting technology. And technology does not tend to bend to ideology. Ask the folks who tried to have ideology control healthcare.gov

Just saying.

And in this case, it’s all about the money. Late tax billing will affect everybody in Cook County.

Comment by Judgment Day (on the road) Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 4:36 pm
As previously noted, AWillyWord Consulting stands ready to fix this for the right price.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 5:35 pm
“As previously noted, AWillyWord Consulting stands ready to fix this for the right price.”
————-

Complete service providers with 10,000 Addressograph machines to address your every need…..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addressograph

Comment by Judgment Day (on the road) Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 5:51 pm
Judgment Day, please do not reveal any of our sources and methods, please.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 8:46 pm