Throughout the 2023 Chicago mayoral campaign, Mayor Johnson stated that it was his intention to avoid increasing property taxes, citing concerns about the burden already placed on many Chicagoans. But, while the impact of property tax increases on individual homeowners and business owners is an important factor to consider, the new mayoral administration must also weigh the property tax in context of the City’s overall revenue needs and its competitiveness compared to other parts of the region…
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With the upcoming implementation of an elected school board to oversee Chicago Public Schools, the governance of CPS will be separated from the City of Chicago. The 21-member elected school board, set to replace the existing seven-member board appointed by the Chicago mayor, will be phased in beginning in 2025, with the fully elected board in place beginning in 2027. The separation raises questions about the ongoing financial responsibility of the City to the school district and whether…
How should Illinois pay for public transit? This was one of the key questions posed at a recent policy forum on the topic of public transportation in the Chicago region hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Civic Federation and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. The policy forum, held on April 13, 2023, targeted a pressing issue: transit agencies in Chicago and across the nation are facing a crisis. Ridership has plummeted since the COVID-19 pandemic began and…
The Civic Federation released its annual Consumer Tax Rates Report in March, which lists and describes selected consumer taxes within the City of Chicago, including the complicated way the hotel operators’ tax is calculated and why. This blog post will explain in detail the hotel operators’ tax history and dissect the tax rate calculation for FY2023. Hotel Tax Rates and History The State hotel operators’ tax was enacted in 1961 at a rate of 3% of 97% of gross receipts from transient guests.…
In the current campaign for Chicago Mayor and City Council, several candidates have called for restoring the City’s employer’s expense or “head” tax, a tax that was repealed in 2014. An employer’s expense tax, or head tax, is imposed on businesses at a flat rate based on the number of employees at that firm. Typically larger firms are subject to the tax. Head taxes in the U.S. are relatively rare. Head Taxes in Other Cities Denver imposes an occupational privilege tax on both employees and…
Click here to read the full report. INTRODUCTION This annual report lists and describes selected consumer taxes within the City of Chicago. For ease of use by non-specialists, the taxes in this report are grouped under the following categories: sales taxes, tobacco and nicotine-related taxes, cannabis-related taxes, beverage-related taxes, utility-related taxes, accommodations-related taxes, transportation-related taxes and other taxes. It is important to note for tax professionals that the…
This post presents information on residential, commercial and industrial estimated effective property tax rates in northeastern Illinois municipalities in 2019, with some comparisons to rates a decade prior. The Civic Federation produces an annual estimated effective property tax rates report for Chicago and 28 other selected municipalities in northeastern Illinois. Of the municipalities, 12 are in Cook County (including Chicago) and 19 are in the collar counties. The effective tax rates…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read a press release for this analysis. MAJOR FINDINGS Effective property tax rates are a measure of property tax burden for homeowners and businesses. They translate the tax rates on property tax bills into rates that reflect the percentage of full market value that a property owed in taxes for a given year. This report, produced annually by the Civic Federation, estimates the tax year 2019 (taxes payable in 2020) effective rates…
The Civic Federation annually releases a report on consumer taxes in the City of Chicago, which will be released next month. Consumer taxes are tied to the use or consumption of certain goods and services that can be charged directly to consumers through retail transactions or passed on to consumers by businesses or governments. Consumer taxes in Chicago are imposed at various levels of government, including the City of Chicago, Cook County, the State of Illinois and the federal government.…
