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Thursday, September 3, 2015

Breaking Stories, Chicago Tribune- Chicago Mayor Calls for Historic Tax Hike


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Emanuel set to call for largest property tax hike in modern Chicago history

Emanuel preps biggest property tax hike in modern Chicago history
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is set to call for the largest property tax increase in modern Chicago history to raise enough money to make a major pension payment for police and firefighters next year, the mayor's City Council floor leader and a City Hall source told the Chicago Tribune late Wednesday.
The mayor also plans to push a new garbage collection tax, a new per-ride fee on taxis and ride-hailing services such as Uber and a new tax on electronic cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products.
Ald. Patrick O'Connor, 40th, said the idea is to cut down on the annual budget hole that has plagued the city budget for years and further scale back some of the poor financial practices. That includes scoop-and-toss borrowing, in which the city takes debt that's coming due and kicks it out into the future at a higher cost. The administration also wants to put the police and fire pension systems on a road to solvency, he added.
The mayor is considering a property tax hike of between $450 million and $550 million for police and fire pensions, but he has yet to settle on a final number, a City Hall source said. O'Connor put the figure at $450 million for police and fire pensions, plus another $50 million for a Chicago Public Schools construction program. Aldermen would authorize the CPS property tax increase, and the Chicago Board of Education would approve it.
Chicagoans also would be set to join the residents of many suburbs in paying a garbage hauling fee. O'Connor put the garbage tax at $10 to $12 a month for single-family homes and two-flats. The veteran alderman said the tax would not cover the entire cost of garbage pickup, but would put a pretty good dent in it.
Fewer details were available on the e-cigarette tax and new taxi and ride-hailing fees. Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, previously had proposed a $1-per-ride fee on rides from taxis and companies such as Uber and Lyft. Emanuel alluded to that proposal this week when he was asked whether such a tax could be included in the budget he'll unveil Sept. 22.
"There's still a lot of pieces in motion here," O'Connor said.
During his first term, Emanuel avoided major tax hikes in favor of a series of smaller tax, fee and fine increases that together resulted in the equivalent of a 60 percent increase in city property taxes for the average homeowner. Still, come re-election time this year, Emanuel was able to tell voters he hadn't raised property, sales or gas taxes during his tenure.
Emanuel, however, did not set aside money for a major increase in police and fire pension payments that has been looming over City Hall since the General Assembly approved a state law when Mayor Richard M. Daley was in charge. Now the bill is due.
Pension payments this year total about $478 million. Next year, payments to police and fire pension funds will increase by $538 million under current state law, although Emanuel is hoping Gov. Bruce Rauner signs a bill that would allow the city to phase in the higher payments more gradually. Lawmakers approved that bill at the end of May, but have yet to send it to Rauner amid a broader stalemate at the Capitol.
The property tax increase Emanuel is mulling would far exceed what the mayor himself said during the campaign was the largest property tax increase in Chicago history. In 1987, under Mayor Harold Washington, property taxes rose by $79.9 million, which would be $167.8 million in today's dollars after adjusting for inflation. In 2008, under Daley, property taxes increased by $86.5 million, or $96 million in today's dollars.
During the campaign, Emanuel attacked his runoff challenger, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, for voting for the Washington-era property tax hike. Now Emanuel is weighing a property tax hike that could triple the one his opponent backed.
For weeks, Emanuel has held a series of closed-door meetings with top aides to determine how to come up with enough money to make good on the city's pension commitments while also working to scale back the city's most expensive borrowing practices. Many aldermen have long suspected a major property tax increase would be a big part of the answer.
"It's not as if we weren't warned," said Ald. Joe Moore, 49th. "We have known for several years that the pension shortfall was going to cause us to make some really painful decisions, particularly if we didn't receive any relief from Springfield, and we didn't receive any relief from Springfield."
Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune

A deadly Wednesday as 8 people killed in homicides in Chicago

 
A teen in a park on the West Side. Two men in their 30s in Uptown on the North Side. A woman in her 20s in the South Side's Morgan Park neighborhood.
Chicago's most recent spasm of violence touched all corners of the city.
On Wednesday alone, eight people were shot to death in homicides. A ninth victim — an 11-year-old boy — died of an apparent accidental shooting.
That marked the most homicides in a single day in Chicago in more than a decade, according to a Tribune analysis of department data.
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Kentucky clerks to issue marriage licenses as their boss is jailed

A defiant county clerk went to jail Thursday for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, but five of her deputies agreed to issue the licenses themselves, potentially ending the church-state standoff in Rowan County, Kentucky.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning said he had no choice but to jail Kim Davis for contempt after she insisted that her "conscience will not allow" her to follow federal court rulings on gay marriage.
"God's moral law conflicts with my job duties," Davis told the judge before she was taken away by a U.S. marshal.
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Slain Fox Lake cop's funeral set for Monday in Antioch

As Lake County authorities waited for analysis of key evidence in the fatal shooting of Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz — including a gun recovered from the crime scene and newly obtained surveillance video — officials announced the slain Fox Lake police veteran's funeral will be Monday in Antioch.
Public viewing will begin at 9 a.m. at Antioch High School, the Lake County sheriff's office announced Thursday afternoon. The funeral will be at 1 p.m.
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At least 12 people shot dead, including 11-year-old boy, since late Tuesday in Chicago

At least 12 people have died and 13 others have been wounded in separate shootings in Chicago between late Tuesday and early Thursday, including the accidental shooting of an 11-year-old boy, police said.
In the latest fatal shooting, a 39-year-old man was killed and a 52-year-old man was wounded in a shooting around 5:10 a.m. Thursday in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side, said Officer Janel Sedevic, a Chicago Police Department spokeswoman.

The two were inside a building in the 4700 block of South King Drive when they were shot.
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1 dead, 1 critically injured in Lake Shore Drive accident

A man was killed, and another was left in critical condition after a vehicle flipped over Thursday evening at Lake Shore Drive and Hollywood Avenue near Sheridan Road.
The accident, which involved one vehicle, happened shortly before 7:25 p.m. near Sheridan Road where Lake Shore Drive ends. A witnesses said the car flipped over unto the bike path.
One person is dead, and another person was taken in critical condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, according to Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccosalva.
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