After a stay by a local judge, the tax was implemented and left a sour taste in the mouth of many residents, for the penny an ounce tax, that some mischaracterized as a tax, on soda, or as we say in the Midwest, “pop.”
That misnomer failed to capture that sweetened beverages were the target, and even that was split on such beverages a frappuccino that was made by a barista, untaxed, or bought in a bottle at a retail outlet, taxed.
Already burdened by a 10.25 percent sales tax, and the largest property tax increase in Chicago history, many of their residents have felt that the next thing to be taxed is the air that they breathe; especially in lieu of a 32 percent tax increase, that recently passed, over the veto of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, to give the state a budget that it has lacked for nearly two years, after a partisan battle.
To add even more change to the needy coffers, Chicago city residents, pay 7 cents for a shopping bag, unless they bring their own, for any retail purchase, even that sandwich from a chic charcuteries, in the pricey Loop district. And, if in that area, will also pay large parking meter fees; that can be as much as the cost of the aforementioned lunch.
As with most regressive taxes, people find a way around them, and the results are generally disappointing --- and this bag tax is no different. Take a stroll near a supermarket and you see a veritable sea of people walking out without bags, merchandise in their hands, even in baby strollers, with, or without the baby, to tote gallon containers of milk, melons, diapers, or cereal boxes.
Add to that scene, legions of people - generally, but not always, professionals toting folded bags from the annual professional conferences; all to avoid paying the 7 cent bag fee.
Preckwinkle who has been popular, and was once considered as a mayoral challenger to incumbent Rahm Emanuel, is becoming imperious, said some observers, as her reaction, when she was sued by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, who when then when they lost on appeal, she attempted a countersuit to recoup lost revenue.
Greg Hinz, noted on Crain's Chicago Business that “Preckwinkle subsequently caught more heat when she asked a county judge to force IRMA to pay $17 million in damages, allegedly to make up for the money lost when the restraining order was in place. She ended up backing off, but not until a series of scathing attacks from newspaper editorials and fellow board member Richard Boykin, who says she so has mishandled things that he may run against her for re-election next year.”
Reaction to that was swift and immediate, and “At a news conference, West Side Democrat Richard Boykin, joined by suburban Republicans Tim Schneider and Sean Morrison, unveiled a measure that would require advance board approval of any civil suit filed by the president on behalf of the county that seeks more than $500,000. The board also would have to be notified of any suit seeking more than $100,000,” reported CCB.
Then add in local fast food giant McDonald’s who was being sued for taxing a drink twice. A local man “claims McDonald’s added the 23 cent tax to the pre-tax price of the beverage as a surcharge. The subtotal for the food, beverage and tax was then taxed again at the county’s sales tax rate when the final total for his purchase was calculated.” The suit was consequently thrown out.
This was mostly a local issue, until the Feds took notice and issued a letter about the way the tax was handled for food stamp holders, who, by nature, don’t pay sales tax. Some retailers who could not program their registers to delete the tax for them, had a system to charge, then delete it, before payment. This was the direct result of a change in direction from including the price on the shelf sticker to that, of an added tax at checkout.
"We advised Cook County via phone call on June 28, 2017, that this option for managing the tax was unacceptable," Tim English, regional administration of the Department of Agriculture, wrote Department of Human Services Secretary James Dimas. "However, as of Aug. 3, this alternative still appears on the Cook County website."
The big fly in the ointment, or that sweetened latte, is “the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency is threatening to withhold nearly $87 million in state funding unless the county immediately alters the illegal manner in which the penny-an-ounce levy has been implemented.”
CCB noted that there was little response from Preckwinkle's office, except this: "We received the letter last night, and our attorneys are reviewing" it, a spokesman said. "We had been in touch with state and federal agencies on this issue. We'll have more to say on it later."
Adding to the furor is Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office who, in a letter to her, said, in part: “I am writing to inform you that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has determined that one method of implementing the Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax in relation to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) clients violates federal law. FNS states that it will take action to suspend administrative funds to the State of Illinois unless corrective action is taken ($86.8 million last fiscal year). Please be advised that FNS powers against the State in this regard are substantial.”
Greg Hinz, noted on Crain's Chicago Business that “Preckwinkle subsequently caught more heat when she asked a county judge to force IRMA to pay $17 million in damages, allegedly to make up for the money lost when the restraining order was in place. She ended up backing off, but not until a series of scathing attacks from newspaper editorials and fellow board member Richard Boykin, who says she so has mishandled things that he may run against her for re-election next year.”
Reaction to that was swift and immediate, and “At a news conference, West Side Democrat Richard Boykin, joined by suburban Republicans Tim Schneider and Sean Morrison, unveiled a measure that would require advance board approval of any civil suit filed by the president on behalf of the county that seeks more than $500,000. The board also would have to be notified of any suit seeking more than $100,000,” reported CCB.
Then add in local fast food giant McDonald’s who was being sued for taxing a drink twice. A local man “claims McDonald’s added the 23 cent tax to the pre-tax price of the beverage as a surcharge. The subtotal for the food, beverage and tax was then taxed again at the county’s sales tax rate when the final total for his purchase was calculated.” The suit was consequently thrown out.
This was mostly a local issue, until the Feds took notice and issued a letter about the way the tax was handled for food stamp holders, who, by nature, don’t pay sales tax. Some retailers who could not program their registers to delete the tax for them, had a system to charge, then delete it, before payment. This was the direct result of a change in direction from including the price on the shelf sticker to that, of an added tax at checkout.
"We advised Cook County via phone call on June 28, 2017, that this option for managing the tax was unacceptable," Tim English, regional administration of the Department of Agriculture, wrote Department of Human Services Secretary James Dimas. "However, as of Aug. 3, this alternative still appears on the Cook County website."
The big fly in the ointment, or that sweetened latte, is “the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency is threatening to withhold nearly $87 million in state funding unless the county immediately alters the illegal manner in which the penny-an-ounce levy has been implemented.”
CCB noted that there was little response from Preckwinkle's office, except this: "We received the letter last night, and our attorneys are reviewing" it, a spokesman said. "We had been in touch with state and federal agencies on this issue. We'll have more to say on it later."
Adding to the furor is Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office who, in a letter to her, said, in part: “I am writing to inform you that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has determined that one method of implementing the Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax in relation to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) clients violates federal law. FNS states that it will take action to suspend administrative funds to the State of Illinois unless corrective action is taken ($86.8 million last fiscal year). Please be advised that FNS powers against the State in this regard are substantial.”
Answering the call, or rather the demand from the Feds, was a good idea, and, we hear that most cash registers have been re-programmed to comply with the no sales tax rule.
Taxes and Cook County presidents seem to go hand in hand and one reason, ironically, is that Preckwinkle was elected, in part, to ease the high tax burden, passed by her predecessor, Todd Stroger.
If all politics is local, then the proof of the pudding is in the eating, or maybe that should be the drinking? One teaspoon, or two?
If all politics is local, then the proof of the pudding is in the eating, or maybe that should be the drinking? One teaspoon, or two?
The public, as of late, seems to have wised up regarding the sweetened beverage tax, and the latest movement is to have friends that work, or live, in Lake County take orders of soda pop, premixed lattes, with sugar, drinks with less than 50 percent milk, and so on.
Preckwinkle trying hard to avoid a referendum on the tax has now brought out the big guns, this time, or should we say the big bucks, of billionaire, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in a series of radio and TV ads with testimony that suggest even one can of soda, in a child’s daily diet will make them, so morbidly obese, that they won’t be able to walk.
Somehow all of this doom-and-gloom talk has failed to impress John and Jane Q. Public who are importing, as we have seen, Prohibition era style, from other counties, their cache of sweetened beverages, or bribing their food stamp holding friend's, chicken dinners on Sunday, to use their tax free cards for that most durable taste sensation - sugar!
Adding to the real push, the erstwhile County Board president has enlisted Bloomberg's deep pockets to do a $2.5 million study to be done at the University of Illinois at Chicago to do, as the Chicago Tribune reported, “whether the tax actually improves public health over an extended period of time.”
The old adage, of “he writeth the check calleth the tune,” seems not to be considered, or even acknowledged as the officials at Bloomberg Philanthropies assure us that they will be “rigorous in method.”
As any good psychology undergrad knows, there is value in a longitudinal study, that is one done over a lengthy period of time, and this one will be done over three years, and “Regardless of what they fund, it will be published either way,” says Dr. Kelly Henning who runs the public health program for the financier's charity.
While Preckwinkle may lose some of her luster (a strong and early advocate on reforming race based sentencing) Boykins and others are nipping at her electoral heels, (she is seeking a third term) and this issue could be her achilles heel in an otherwise A-rated reputation.
In July she got in trouble with the affable, and competent, Sheriff Tom Dart over his “bloated” budget, who as the Chicago Sun TImes reported, replied that he didn’t “create this crisis,” but inherited it.
Then Boykins charged her with acting like “a drunken sailor with the taxpayer's credit card, who is being dishonest, and everything she see she wants to tax and spend.”
Ouch!
Add to that Madame President's devotion to Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, long accused of cronyism, and now, pandering to white property owners for tax assessments, and the ground beneath her feet seems to be shifting, for the once popular and grounded Preckwinkle.
Cook County’s commissioners are expected to vote on repeal Oct. 10, but as the Trib noted, “It's unclear at this point if there are enough votes to overturn the controversial measure.”
Updated Sept. 30 at 6:49 CDST
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