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* Center Square…
A bipartisan group of Illinois lawmakers has gotten behind a proposal to repeal the state’s new car trade-in tax and replace it with a different fee structure.
As of Jan. 1, Illinois’ sales tax applies to any trade-in vehicle worth more than $10,000. That means trading in a $30,000 car for one worth $60,000 will cost the customer an extra $1,200 in additional sales taxes. It’s estimated to bring the state $60 million annually, affecting what state officials insisted was a small portion of Illinois residents.
Legislation filed earlier last month would repeal the application of sales tax to trade-in value over $10,000. In turn, it would charge a tax based on the selling price of the car if it’s worth more than $15,000 or how many years old it is if valued at less than $15,000. It would take effect 120 days after it’s enacted.
Industry experts predicted the Jan. 1 change would have a profound effect on consumer buying habits and the change appears to have set in quickly.
“Last year, we had about 26 trade-ins by now from the first of the year that were over $10,001,” said Daniel Fontana, sales consultant at Mike Haggerty Buick GMC in Oak Lawn. “We’re only floating at 19 right now.”
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Tony Munoz (D-Chicago).
* Bernie…
State Rep. TIM BUTLER, R-Springfield, has filed a bill that would allow breweries to start “mug clubs.”
A mug club is a loyalty program where bar patrons can purchase a special mug from the establishment and have it refilled at a discount over the course of a year.
Currently, such discounts are prohibited under the state’s happy hour law, which only allows the sale of drinks at a reduced price for up to four hours a day and 15 hours a week.
Under Butler’s legislation, a carve-out would be made “if a person purchases a mug, cup or other glassware” as part of a mug club program.
Butler said the idea was sparked by a conversation he had with the owners of BUZZ BOMB BREWING CO., 406 E. Adams St., who hope to bring the concept to Springfield.
The bill is here.
* Another try…
Is it time to raise the speed limit again? The suburban lawmaker who six years ago pushed to boost our highway limit from 65 mph to 70 mph seems to think so.
State Sen. Jim Oberweis (R-North Aurora) has filed legislation, Senate Bill 2565, to lift Illinois’ highway speed limit to 75 mph. But where Oberweis got overwhelming support for increasing the limit to 70 mph six years ago, skeptics already are emerging for taking it up another 5 mph.
* WCIA…
Senator Ram Villivilam said he wants to bring back a small business tax credit for $5,000 for every new position a business with fewer than 50 employees makes. The Illinois Chamber of Commerce likes the idea of the bill, but does not know if the incentives are strong enough. “We still think it has the same fundamental flaws, unless you really go ahead and get up to $10,000 or $15,000,” said Todd Maisch. “But even then, there is going to be a suspicion that what is there one year won’t be there the next, as soon as the legislature decides that they want that revenue back.”
For a business to receive the credit, the position created will have to pay at least $15 per hour.
…Adding… Marni Pyke…
Quashing the proposed extension of Route 53 north into Lake County may have been the easy part.
Residents who waged war against the pricey expansion rejoiced when the Illinois tollway dropped the project last July, effectively dooming it for lack of funds.
Now, however, there’s a 1,100-acre hot potato squatting in Lake County. The state spent $54.3 million over 48 years acquiring land for the defunct road.
What to do? Looks like it’s task force time.
Legislation is percolating through the General Assembly to create a task force authorized to recommend uses for the land by Dec. 31.
The bill is here.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 10:51 am
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I’d like to see Mr. Fontana’s numbers for the last couple months of 2019.
The trade-in tax was arguably the greatest end of year marketing boost for car sales the auto dealers have seen in quite some time. Hmmm …
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 10:56 am
I’d like to see multiple years of data for the trade ins. Fluctuating from 26 to 19 doesn’t seem significant to me. If year after year they’ve been in the mid 20’s, and now aren’t, then you might be getting somewhere.
Comment by Perrid Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 11:01 am
Hurry home that ice cream’s gonna melt.
Comment by All This Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 11:06 am
I wouldn’t mind seeing the speed limit raised to 75 MPH in some portions of Illinois. If you’ve ever driven on I-155 or I-72 west of Springfield then you know there’s little reason to stay under 70 MPH.
Comment by Former State Worker Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 11:09 am
“skeptics already are emerging for taking it up another 5 mph.”
The milk man is courting voters, not highway safety experts or skeptics. Suburban voters love roads.
Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 11:11 am
Dear Senator Villavam -
Tax credits are a terrible why to provide a boost to companies, there is no accountability in the budget process and there is very little way to control costs of the program once you start it. Instead, make it a great much like a tuition scholarship.
Also, give the Illinois Chamber it’s wish: raise the grant to $10K, but lower the eligibility threshold to companies with 25 employees, and cap the amount of money you are going to spend at something reasonable for a pilot program say $10M and limiting it to employees from Illinois’ poorest zip codes.
Comment by Thomas Paine Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 11:27 am
There’s a housing shortage in Illinois. Sure could fit a lot of housing on 1100 acres; especially multi-tenant and senior housing.
What better way to approach two problems as well as give a little bit of grief back?
It’ll end up single family homes and strip centers, though.
Comment by DuPage Guy Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 11:46 am
===there is no accountability in the budget process and there is very little way to control costs of the program once you start it====
The bill is capped at $75 million, so I would say that a pretty good way to control the cost of the program.
Comment by twowaystreet Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 11:52 am
Build condos and apartments with mandated design specifications to make them good places to live for a variety of family sizes. Keep 50% of each unit under government ownership with rent control. Open the public units to anyone in the bottom 97% of income range. Charge rents based on income. The other 50% belong to the developer who can sell/rent at maket rates. All units subject to the same rules regarding noise, upkeep, etc. Connect the entire area to local jobs, shopping and health care via mass transit which also connects to other areas. The mix of publicly owned units would be interspersed throughout the privately owned units and have the same design/construction features.
Comment by Froganon Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 12:01 pm
==Connect the entire area to local jobs, shopping and health care via mass transit==
It’s Long Grove, not Lincoln Yards.
Comment by City Zen Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 12:15 pm
I visited a brewpub in Marquette Michigan that had a mug club and it looked like a great way to build community at the local brewpub. Kudos to Rep. Butlet on this bill, hopefully he can get it passed.
Comment by frisbee Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 12:28 pm
The speed increase is ill-advised from both a fuel economy standpoint and more importantly, a safety one. The drag increase of the additional speed is going to raise fuel burn quite a bit. Worse though; the kinetic energy equation is exponential, meaning, the additional speed leads to much longer stopping times, far beyond normal driver reaction time, and the impact energy of a crash will be not a little more than 70 mph, but exponentially worse. Just the thing for the oncoming road re-construction season. Hey, if you wanna drive faster and buy more gas to pay more gas taxes, that’s on you, but, please, don’t raise the speed limit again; the trade-off in lives isn’t worth the tiny bit of time saved.
Comment by Give us Barabbas Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 12:45 pm
I know multiple Illinois breweries that have mug clubs. Either you just get a special mug to drink out of with no discount or they are breaking the law. Seems a no brainer to adjust the law to allow for the discount.
Comment by Montrose Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 1:22 pm
The congestion in Lake County is a nightmare from 53 not being extended.
The traffic of NW burbs heading east to south or reverse is a non stop daily nightmare, as there is only Edens exp, SR43, the tollway/294, rt21 and 83 all of which are bumper to bumper daily.
And rt 12 is worse.
There is no way to go South for all those NW suburbanites. Everyone, has to go way east to go south. It can take 45 mins to go 7 miles.
Add the nightmare freight trains that cross these too, 3 4 12 times a day, for miles, at very slow speeds.
It was another stupid idea to kabosh 53 extension.
Let alone another study, to build ..what another mall?
Comment by sharkette Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 2:24 pm
The congestion in Lake County is a nightmare from 53 not being extended N.
The traffic of NW burbs heading east to south or reverse is a non stop daily nightmare, as there is only Edens exp, SR43, the tollway/294, rt21 and 83 all of which are bumper to bumper daily.
And rt 12 is worse.
There is no way to go South for all those NW suburbanites. Everyone, has to go way east to go south. It can take 45 mins to go 6-7 miles.
Add the nightmare freight trains that cross these too, 3 4 12 times a day, for miles, at very slow speeds.
It was another poor decision on Alveraz part to kabosh 53 extension.
Let alone another study, to build ..what another mall?
Comment by sharkette Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 2:25 pm
Raising the speed limit to 75 mph will reduce a trip by about 6 minutes per 100 miles.
The interstate highways are a 1960’s design and are not designed for 75 mph. What that means is the horizontal curves do not have enough super elevation (high speed bank banking in NASCAR lingo), the vertical profiles (hills and dips) are too short to accommodate the 75 mph sight stopping distance.
Why does oberweis care about the speed limit? He is immune from speeding tickets when traveling to or from Springfield.
Comment by Huh? Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 2:44 pm
“The state spent $54.3 million over 48 years acquiring land for the defunct road.
What to do?” Build a third airport. /s
Yes on “Mug Club”. That whole happy hour restriction dates back to Jim “Tea Totaller” Edgar. Times change.
Comment by Skeptic Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 2:51 pm
IL 53 extension isn’t dead yet. Preserve the right of way. Fuel efficiency at 70 is terrible. Remember that 55 mph was implemented because of gas shortages and we discovered that there were great safety benefits. If we care about air quality and greenhouse gas, we’ll reduce the speed limit back to 55.
Comment by NoGifts Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 3:14 pm
Before they raise the maximum again, they need to raise the minimum. It’s still the same 45mph when the maximum was 55mph. That needs to come up to at least 60mph in 70mph zones, and shouldn’t be less than 10mph below the maximum anywhere.
The other day in a 70 zone I came up on a mummified driver that was actually going 45. Eventhough she was in the right lane, she was nearly causing a pileup everytime a new group of cars came upon her.
Comment by TwoFeetThick Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 3:21 pm
Agree with Huh? that most interstates have a maximum design speed of 70 mph; some sections are below that number.
Re: IL 53, the acquired ROW may be as narrow as 300 feet. See a lot of dog parks and bike trails, but not a lot tax generating uses.
Comment by Bogey Golfer Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 3:43 pm
While I agree some downstate Interstate stretches are tedious, I don’t think the limit needs to be raised. Traffic is already running close to 80. I tend to set my cruise on 75 and most the traffic is passing me … and my vehicle likes to run 80 and gets just as good or better gas mileage from my experience out west (it’s a matter of gearing and optimal engine rpm).
If we were to raise the limit to 75, the traffic would be running 85 or higher.
Comment by RNUG Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 4:04 pm
“Give us Barabbas”
Hiding an anti-Semitic dog whistle there, chum?
Comment by miso Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 4:16 pm
No, I coined it when Trump Released Blago. It’s a swipe at the two of them.
Comment by Give us Barabbas Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 6:29 pm
As usual, the Center Square article on trade-ins is very misleading. The bill they reference would get rid of the trade-in limit that applies to dealer sales and make the tax on sales between private parties higher. This shifts the impact entirely to the private vehicle market. Even if you think the trade-in credit should be fully restored, this is a bad way to do it. A better solution would be to impose a surcharge on high priced vehicles whether sold through a dealership or a private party.
Comment by Pelonski Monday, Feb 24, 20 @ 7:08 pm
“No, I coined it when Trump Released Blago. ”
No you didn’t. That old saw is 2000 years old.
Comment by miso Tuesday, Feb 25, 20 @ 3:37 pm