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A dollar a pack hike proposed in Cook County’s budget.
A $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax was the only hike proposed in the $3.1 billion 2006 Cook County budget released Monday by County Board President John H. Stroger Jr. (D-4th).
The increase would double the per-pack county cigarette tax, making it $2 for just the county portion of taxes levied on cigarettes in Cook County.
Stroger said the cigarette tax hike should take care of a $75 million shortfall in the budget, and he said it was appropriate in part because a “disproportionate” number of people who use the county health care system have problems related to tobacco use.
“I am proud of the fact that this budget limits growth to 1 percent over last year, well below the rate of inflation,” Stroger said. “I also appreciate that no one likes taxes, but the reality is that we have cut expenses to the bone and without some new resources, we will be faced with service cuts — something I cannot support.”
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 12:43 am
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One more reason for smokers in Cook to go to Indiana to buy their cigarettes?
IF it makes one more person quit smoking, it’s OK by me.
In regards to all the talk about banning smoking in restaurants, etc., go to Ireland. Smoking in all pubs, restaurants, etc., was started in 1993. Sure enjoyed my two trips there in 03 and 04. We could enjoy our pub lunches and dinners without inhaling smoke. The Irish Independent newspaper reports that pub and restaurant workers have fewer respiratory problems and tested several workers who now have improved lung capacity from not inhaling second hand smoke.
Comment by Nearly Normal Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 8:11 am
I should have proofread before I sent!
Smoking is BANNED in all pubs and restaurants and public buildings in Ireland. There are hefty fines for publicans and restaurant owners who do not comply.
Comment by Nearly Normal Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 8:13 am
I am grateful, in grossly overtaxed suburban Cook, that the county part of our property taxes will not go up.
I fear for next fiscal year though, as Stroger has done nothing to curb patronage and featherbedding in the county civil service.
Nevertheless, this move on Stroger’s part will no doubt remove any potential obstacles to his re-election.
Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 9:03 am
In state fiscal year 2005, Cook County imposed a cigarette tax increase, and according to the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget’s FY 2006 Budget Book, the State of Illinois realized a decline in state revenue of about $40 million due to sales diverted to other states or simply declining usage. Now Cook County is proposing another vice tax that will assuredly result in a decline of state revenues again, revenues that currently fund Medicaid nursing homes.
Keep in mind, Cook County solves their budget hole by creating one for the state; and already inadequate Medicaid funding will shrink a little further.
Comment by A Budgete Watcher Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 9:18 am
Just some food for thought: the national average for a pack of cigarettes is $3.95. Of that, the national average amount that is taxes is $2.03, or 52%. That means that big government is the majority stakeholder in “big tobacco.†One might want to ask why the government is trying to make itself more financially dependant on a product of which it is simultaneously trying to reduce the usage. Conservatives have known for years that government is almost inherently irresponsible with money, but this takes it to a new level.
Cook County smokers going to Indiana to buy cigarettes isn’t something to blow off. When people make the trip to an Indiana store to buy cigarettes, more likely than not they are going to buy other items there that they would have otherwise bought in Illinois….meaning that the state/county/city are also losing out on sales tax revenue – adding fuel to that diminished returns fire.
And have Stroger or Blagojevich (who is apparently also considering a statewide increase in the next year) taken a look at the demographics of those who smoke? Why are these self-proclaimed champions of the working class proposing a regressive tax on them (the cigarette tax is a flat fee per pack, not a percentage of the varying cost of different brand….so someone who buys a pack of Viceroy’s in Englewood pay just as much tax as a person who buys a pack of Camels in Lincoln Park.) Every minute, the state governments in the US take in more in tobacco revenue than the median annual income of smokers ($58,940 and $41,754 respectively).
You don’t need a Nobel Prize in economics to know that Quigley made a good point in the Sun Times article: eventually, the cigarette tax will reach the point of diminishing returns….some might argue that it already has. And what do you think the County will do when that happens? They certainly aren’t going to start spending less money….they are going to have to raise taxes on some other group of citizens.
Comment by grand old partisan Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 9:43 am
Cassandra 9:18
Do not bet that your taxes (as opposed to the County’s tax rate) will not go up. In addition to the other quasi-County entities who are not so limited, if you were reassessed (usually upwards) your taxes will go up.
Comment by Truthful James Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 10:54 am
Chicago boomed when it was a chaotic city with an unlimited future and potential. It was the 19th Century’s greatest city. So successful was Chicago, it was able to limp through the 20th Century without losing it’s global influence. During that century. It stagnated under a centralized one-party government disinterested in new ideas, falling prey to the then-current belief that a socialist centralizing government would create perpetual economic success.
By 1982, Chicago jumped the shark. It lost it’s chutzpah in growing new businesses, while failing to maintain it’s water, air and auto routes. It’s schools failed, forcing families out. Like many NE and MW cities, it fell under the influence that “small was beautiful”, and began questioning the need to grow.
Chicago is now at a point where it’s ability to pay it’s own overhead is gone. Businesses and working families have left. Surprisingly, unlike NYC, LA, or even Russia, Chicago is still a one-party city incapable of new ideas. Daley has succeeded in keeping the public image intact, but a pretty city with no economic growth cannot live, as New Orleans can attest.
Like Germans, the French and drug addicts, Chicagoans realize their once proud economy has turned into a monthly welfare check one. Finding new tax revenue is vital under these circumstances. While voters have found temporary relief with tax caps, the writing is on the wall - Chicago is a poor value. It is time to move to a non-Cook county suburb.
If Chicago wants to live again, it will need to become hungry before it entirely runs out of food. It needs to turn out all the comfortable fat aldermen, comfortable fat bureaucrats and start demanding the chaos, failures, frustrations, and most importantly the successes a unencumbered pro-business city environment will bring. The worst thing Chicago did was build monuments. Monuments belong in cemetaries, not vital cities.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 11:53 am
“There is no profit in an open town” If Chicago manages another dollar a pack on top of what is already in place, the bootleggers may make enough money they can start paying off the cops and the politicians, and the smokers of Chicago won’t have to drive to Indiana anymore.
Comment by Anon Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 12:08 pm
like i have said before
democrats = tax tax tax = spend spend spend =
pork pork pork
Comment by ron Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 2:33 pm
This has got to be brutal on retailers. The County has gone to far.
Comment by Bill Baar Tuesday, Dec 20, 05 @ 4:48 pm