The Cook County
Board referred two proposed new taxes to the Finance Committee for consideration
as part of the 2016 budget proceedings.
The Finance Committee is scheduled to meet on Friday,
Nov. 13 at 1 pm to consider these new taxes, as well as other previously
introduced new revenue sources. This follows past practice whereby the
Committee votes on revenue proposals first, then at a later date considers the
budget as a whole.
This subsequent budget meeting is scheduled for Nov.
18.
President
Preckwinkle, along with 8 Commissioners, is sponsoring a new ordinance that
would impose a 1% hotel accommodation tax effective May 1, 2016. Nine Commissioners
are needed to pass this proposal. During the Public Comment period, the
General Manager of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, who is also on the Executive
Committee of Choose Chicago, spoke against the proposed tax. He
stressed that the hotel tax will hurt Chicago in competing for conventions,
whose main competition is with Orlando and Las Vegas which have hotel taxes of
12.5% vs. 17.5% which would result from this additional 1%. Sixty-five percent of the business of his hotel is dependent on
conventions.
Some Commissioners questioned whether the 1% increase
($1.85 per day on a room rate of $185) would really be a deterrent. The
speaker said that this increase would be a deterrent to those arranging
conventions.
The other proposed
tax, sponsored by President Preckwinkle and Commissioner Boykin, would impose a
5 cent per cartridge tax on centerfire ammunition, and a 1 cent per cartridge
charge for rimfire ammunition, effective June 1, 2016. The Executive
Director of the Illinois Council on Handgun Violence urged that this tax be
passed, stressing the costs being incurred by government and citizens to deal
with gun violence.
The speaker said that people in Chicago incur $2.5
billion a year in costs attributable to medical, police, and judicial functions
related to gun violence.
-- Priscilla Mims,
League Observer
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