The Vice-President of Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today admonished those in Illinois’ legal system and news media to hold Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanual (D) and Ill. Gov. Patrick Quinn (D) to the same standard of behavior as former Governor Rod Blagojevich (D).
“Former Governor Blagojevich is aggressively being tried a second time for allegedly offering a U.S. Senate seat for $50,000,” said Christina Tobin, Vice-President of TUA. “Yet Rahm Emanual, scheduled to take office on May 16 as Mayor of Chicago, reportedly offered $50,000 to his tenant, Rob Halpin, as an ‘inducement’ for him to vacate his house prior to the expiration of the lease, so Emanual could move back in and present a more convincing case that he was a ‘resident’ of Chicago.” Read more →
Retiring Chicago Mayor Richard Daley recently chose to exploit the laws of Illinois to maximize taxpayer expense for his lavish pension.
Under the Illinois Retirement Systems Reciprocal Act, all his government jobs are being combined into one lump sum, instead of receiving separate pensions from every government body he worked for.
Daley is also taking advantage of a rule that was in effect for legislators in office before 1994, which allows him to base his state pension on his last government salary. In this case, it’s based on his $216,000 salary as mayor of Chicago. This allows him to collect a higher pension, then if each pension was based separately on his earnings at each job. In effect, it creates a fictional job that can be used to take more money from taxpayers.
Jim Tobin, president of TUA, told WBBM that it’s unfair to put the burden of paying for Daley’s and other government workers’ pensions on state income tax payers and Chicago property tax payers. Tobin said it appeared that Mayor Daley will celebrate his retirement by “retiring in luxury as he enjoys his double-dipping pension.”
You can listen to the WBBM radio episode here:
Source: WBBM
CHICAGO – The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Energy show that Chicago has now surpassed San Francisco and Los Angeles for the nation’s highest gasoline price per gallon. Just one week ago, Chicago trailed both cities at the pump. It is not the oil companies, however, that specifically targeted Chicago citizens with the “over the top” gas prices, –Chicago politicians did.
According to the American Petroleum Institute (API), the nationwide average tax on gasoline is 48.1 cents per gallon (cpg), which includes a federal excise tax of 18.4 cpg. In Illinois the average tax on gasoline is 61.2 cpg overall. In Chicago, however, it is far worse. In addition to the state excise tax (19 cpg), Cook County’s fuel tax (6 cpg), Chicago’s local tax (5 cpg), and numerous other taxes (underground storage tank fee, environmental impact fee), Illinois allows for sales taxes to be collected on the retail price of gasoline as well. The sales tax in Chicago is 9.75%. This means that Chicago citizens now pay well over 80 cents in taxes per gallon of gasoline purchased. It also means that, thanks to the sales tax, the taxpayer’s burden increases as oil prices rise. Read more →
