“This is one of those votes I think a lot of us will make, holding our noses… If this doesn’t happen, you are not going to have buses.”
– Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), conveying the inevitability of a real-estate transfer-tax increase in today’s Trib. Chicago’s finance committee met on Monday but delayed a vote on the tax hike, which will be used to bolster CTA’s pension and health-care funds. The additional tax – an increase from $7.50 per $1,000 of sales price to $10.50 – could generate as much as $2.3 billion in revenue over the next three decades.
Committee members are pushing to make seniors exempt from the 40-percent tax increase and to guarantee free CTA rides for active military personnel and disabled veterans. Some aldermen also want CTA to invest its money with more local and minority-owned management firms.
Making all seniors exempt is a bad idea, especially those with money, and investors. I can’t wait for the next scam, people who use their senior parents name and credit line to avoid paying transfer tax.
How about free rides for people who pay the transfer tax and full fare for the people who rent. This is nuts.
Jeff,
We’ve passed from being the city of big shoulders to being the city of bad ideas. What’s one more?