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* Mayor Daley came out strongly in favor of the regional sales tax for public transit yesterday…
With fare increases and service cuts just days away for Chicago Transit Authority and Pace riders, Mayor Richard Daley on Wednesday renewed his call for Springfield to head off the pain by approving a sales-tax increase for the Chicago area.
“I think the General Assembly has to understand — what is the alternative?” Daley said of proposed legislation that would raise the sales tax in Cook County and the collar counties to bail out the region’s public-transit system. “There is no alternative in regards to mass transportation.”
Daley said there would be no political repercussions if a House bill called for the 0.25 percent increase, along with a raise in the city’s real estate transfer tax, to generate more money for the CTA, Pace and Metra and also provide funding for suburban road-improvement projects. […]
“The deal is there, and no one is going to blame anyone for increasing the sales tax,” he said. “We are not going to blame the governor. We are not going to blame the General Assembly. … This is good for the metropolitan area. It is good for the collar counties, the suburban area. It’s good for the city. It’s good for employers and employees.”
* And…
“If you really believe in the future of mass transit, vitally important for the economic future not only of Chicago, but the region,” Daley said. “That is the key — you can’t put more cars on the highway, it’s just going to eventually break down.”
* But Justin DeJong, of the governor’s budget office, told Chicago Public Radio that businesses ought to be taxed, instead…
“This comes back to the fact that there are many corporations in Illinois that pay little or no taxes to the state. Businesses clearly benefit from having a strong public transit system, and it’s only right that they help support this system.”
Listen below…
Notice, though, that no specific business tax was offered up. The truth is, they don’t have a plan.
* Meanwhile…
The CTA will have the most expensive fares of the nation’s largest transit agencies if regional transportation officials approve a fare increase at their meeting [today].
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 9:41 am
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Dick Simpson would probably be disgusted with me saying so, but I have been pretty pleased with Mayor Daley’s efforts to green Chicago. If he could only give up the machine politics and corporate money, he would find a natural ally in the Greens in Chicago.
Comment by Squideshi Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 9:48 am
Anything that comes from the governors budget office has to be looked at with an eye of suspicion.
Comment by Milorad Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 9:56 am
The Gov. position (DeJong)is completely wrong with regards to who should pay for public transportation. Business is the economic engine that drives our economy. Right now Illinois is near the bottom when it comes to creating new jobs. To place another increase in corp. taxes will only drive more businesses out of the state.
Comment by MOON Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 9:56 am
The problem with a regional tax increase is that the CTA consumes a disproportionate amount of the RTA revenue, while the collar counties languish in poor to no service.
Let Cook County, or the City of Chicago levy their own tax.
Comment by plutocrat03 Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:03 am
Chicago is levying its own tax in this deal.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:04 am
eveyone argues who’s responsibility it is to pay for this - the users who use it, the businesses who survive by it being that it brings in tourists, brings in employees.. no one wants to take responsibility… SPLIT IT - make it everyone’s responsibility - a little business, a little user and little CTA - the CTA certainly has to show in the next year that they are being frugal and being responsible and doing their part instead of shifting blame… i would pay a bit more as i am a user and what are my other options? (none) but would like to see others pay their respective portion as well…
Comment by annoyed all the time Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:04 am
Count on Daley to support the business community.
Without business (and the African American vote)
he wouldn’t be there.
What happened to all those corporate tax loopholes that were supposed to produce some additional revenues. Seems like we haven’t heard much about
those lately. So far, I think I’ve heard of one opened loophole (the airplanes heading out of state) but no actual closings.
Sales taxes are among the more regressive forms of taxation. But if we can’t tax business, what about an income tax surcharge on the wealthiest Cook County residents…say, every family with an adusted gross of over $250,000. No pain there and lots of gain.
Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:07 am
We won’t blame the General Assembly or Gov. Blagojevich for passing the RTA sales tax hike, but we will blame them for not doing so.
Comment by Nort'sider Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:11 am
Is Justin DeJong saying many corporations pay no state tax of any kind, in any form, at any time and get a completely free ride or is he trying to say they do not pay a specific state tax? I seem to recall our financial people giving me a long list of taxes we pay to the state every year for as long as we have been around. I thought about 6-8 months ago several CapFax bloggers had created a rather long list of state taxes all organizations in the state pay. If Justin can show which corporations pay absolutley no taxes, that would be a list of loopholes to close that they can work on.
Comment by zatoichi Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:11 am
The Gov’s office is correct. Businesses should fund a good part of mass transit, however, they have so completley alienated anyone who could help bring added funding that they might as well encourage hitch hiking.
Comment by Garp Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:15 am
Daley could solve this problem himself, overnight, by pledging all the Skyway funds to mass transit. But it’s a piggy bank he wants to sit on to bail him out for other things, so he won’t.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:27 am
We pay enough taxes - what ever happened to the gaming expansion to fund Illinois’ problems. We cannot afford to pay any more taxes!!!
Comment by Capitol Bill Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:27 am
What rock did Justin DeJong crawl out from under. Just another spokesperson for the Governor who says dumb things. I wonder how much you have to pay someone to take that job. They ought to get combat pay.
Comment by downhereforyears Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 11:38 am
A daily “congestion tax” works in London. But the idea went absolutely nowhere recently in New York. Guess it was a political non-starter too for the Chicago city council. Too bad.
Someone suggested that Chicago levy a $2 CTA surcharge and add it to the parking tax. I like that: every vehicle then picks up the equivalent of a public transit fare for the privilege of operating downtown.
Comment by Dooley Dudright Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 11:56 am
“The CTA will have the most expensive fares of the nation’s largest transit agencies if regional transportation officials approve a fare increase at their meeting [today].”
Let’s add in the fact that the sales tax in downtown Chicago is the highest in the country (as I recall) at 9.75%!
“The City That Works”, huh? Not any more!
These fare and tax hikes are no more than corruption and politically-oriented Machine mismanagement coming home to roost on the shoulders of the citizenry like a flock of diseased chickens. If we did not have the $200 million to $400 million annual “corruption tax” in this City and County, and if we reformed a County health system that currently is little more than a Free Clinic, we’d be just fine, and building.
Comment by Anon Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 1:59 pm
plutocrat03, the Auditor General found that the collar counties are subsidized by Cook County. What are your credentials to say otherwise? What are your data?
Comment by Anon Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 2:40 pm
Yes, indeed, CTA consumes a disproportionately small amount of RTA’s tax take. 80% of the riders but 58% of the taxes. Several other states, notably Massachusetts and Minnesota, levy flat statewide sales taxes to fund city transit, recognizing that city transit is crucial to the entire state’s economy.
Comment by PC Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 4:37 pm
First Law of Public Transportation Discourse:
“For every metric proving your preferred agency is getting shortchanged, there is an equal and opposite metric proving the other agency is getting shortchanged”
Personally, I love it when government agencies step on one another to try to get a piece of the shrinking pie. Nothing like seeing the aristocracy of pull failing.
Comment by Johnny USA Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 6:14 pm