Chicago city council rejects mayor’s new taxes by a landslide margin. Is this “man bites dog", when it comes to economics?

Photo above - 10% of Chicago's homes are reportedly vacant. These might have squatters living in them, though?

You’re a business manager in Chicago. They mayor sends you a letter saying “good news, everybody – If you employ 100 or more people, you’re going to pay $21 a month for each employee on your payroll”. (See link below)

There’s a couple of ways this could play out. Businesses could scale back their payrolls to 99 people, and use temps or contractors to perform the rest of the tasks. They might refuse to expand. They might move existing workers outside the city limits. Yes, Chicago’s mayor Johnson apparently IS that dumb . . .

The rejected tax package didn’t stop with just the new worker tariff. There would be a monthly boat fees. Sports betting taxes. Cloud/web service access fees. How the heck were they going to collect the tax on THAT? You’d have to hire a LOT of politicians’ friends and family to staff up that regulatory agency, no?

For his part, Mayor Johson took his defeat with aplomb. Wait, that’s not true. Evidently, he had some sort of fit, and began ranting that Chicago’s empty office towers are a continuing effect of the Wuhan virus, and have nothing to do with 2025 taxes, crime, and crappy schools. He probably believes this is why Chicago has 128,000 vacant homes, too.

In any case, Chicago’s city council rejected the mayor’s get rich quick scheme by a vote of 25-10. The mayor and the council both can’t be right, can they? Anyway, I don’t like tariffs on workers any more than I like them on Honda Civics or refrigerators.

I’m just sayin’ . . .


Chicago council committee rejects mayor’s proposed tax hikes