Cook County Sales Tax thread (Chicago, Manhattan: how much, to live in, shop)

[mdz]

Tax is up in all of cook county, everything just went up 1%.

All I can do is shake my head, I feel so darn powerless in this area as of late. I have no problem paying my fair share of taxes, and even some patronage if it keeps the city working, but this is ridiculous. Way to tick off everybody (other than the elect few that will benefit from this). The worst part is that they've got me by my cajones--I love the area, 90% of my friends are still here, both sides of our families are here...otherwise this might have been the last straw to convince me to get out of Dodge. it just makes me sick the amount of money we all have to pay for the privilege of living here.

Tragically, I have little hope that Stroger will get voted out. He won last year on a completely empty platform full of lies, how will we do better next time?

Moderator rant off

[Humboldt1]

Just as bad if not worse is jesse white and his clan. He has several dozen family members on the payroll, some making six figs. Other than the tumblers, what good has he done for the state? I have seen them several times, truly a good program but extremely racially motivated as all 4 shows I saw was not mixed at all with no caucasian, asians, hispanics, or middle eastern kids. Perhaps there are other shows that are more mixed.

It continues to baffle me how people in the city vote for candidates based stricltly upon race and not qualifications or track record. Seeing
Brookins lose was a step in the right direction.

It will be interesting to see nationally how we are doing racially with Obama and McCain, assuming Hillary is out.

My guess is a lot of liberals withy either not vote or vote for McCain making it a close election in spite of how bad Bush has done domestically and in Iraq.

These are the same liberals who claim to not be racist but would not want their son/daughter marrying a black person.

[Avengerfire]

List of Board members:

Earlean Collins, 1st District-
Robert Steele, 2nd District-
Jerry "Iceman" Butler, 3rd District-
William M. Beavers, 4th District-
Deborah Sims, 5th District-
Joan Patricia Murphy, 6th District-
Joseph Mario Moreno, 7th District-
Roberto Maldonado, 8th District-
Peter N. Silvestri, 9th District-
Mike Quigley, 10th District-
John P. Daley, 11th District-
Forrest Claypool, 12th District-
Larry Suffredin, 13th District-
Gregg Goslin, 14th District-
Timothy O. Schneider, 15th District-
Anthony J. Peraica, 16th District-
Elizabeth Ann Doody Gorman, 17th District-

[Humboldt1]

Moderator,

I think Stroger will have his day though it won't come the black base that voted him in. With further gentrification of Chicago and the expansion of the hispanic population more poor blacks will be forced south and into the western suburbs as they have been doing in areas such as addison, villa park, bellwood, berkely, hillside and northlake. This will diminish Strogers voting base and create an opening for most likely a hispanic. I look forward to this day.

I will be doing more shopping in dupage county now.

[Castro Viejo]

Is sales tax better in Dupage County? What about in Northwest Indiana?

[Lookout Kid]

This new tax pisses me off beyond belief. I'm not a government-hating Republican by any means. I'm a social liberal who has voted Democrat my entire life. But I didn't vote for Stroger, and am absolutely horrified at what he has done.

Our economy is in the crapper, so why not just add another 1% inflation to everything sold in Cook County? The timing couldn't be any worse! Do these idiots even think about how they are pricing Cook County out of the marketplace? Who would want to set up a business here under these conditions? I guess we're all supposed to work for the county or something!

And it's clear that sales taxes actually hurt the poor more than income taxes, since they aren't adjusted for income levels. I can't believe anyone would ever vote for Stroger under the guise of helping the poor. Clearly race is a powerful factor in Chicago politics--to the point that people will actually vote to screw themselves over financially to have a candidate with the same skin color as themselves.

I'm MAD MAD MAD!!!!!!!!

[ParkerP]

Wow I'm glad I make most of my major purchases on-line. This is crazy. What the heck is going on? Between Daley and his property tax hikes, Blago and the CTA, and now this? Seems money hikes are in fashion no matter what color of the person in office.

[dragoro]

It aint race its political party.

[Humboldt1]

Dragoro,

I believe race is an issue. In Chicago blacks vote for blacks mostly. Hispanics mostly for hispanics and whites, not generally for blacks. Whites tend to vote for other whites, and some hispanics. With the exception of Obama, whites do not generally vote for blacks. Why do you think it is Hillary and Bill reminding us Obama is black?

Race is a huge factor in how we vote. I like Obama and just pray the likes of Sharpton and Jackson do not influence him. Note that Obama was very clear he did not seek Farrakahn's endorsement.

[dragoro]

I'm not talkin bout votes. I'm talkin bout tax raisers.