STUMP » Articles » Taxing Tuesday: Thank Goodness This Isn't About Public Pensions in Crisis » 27 August 2019, 06:30

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Taxing Tuesday: Thank Goodness This Isn't About Public Pensions in Crisis  

by

27 August 2019, 06:30

OR IS IT?

(yes, there will be some pension-related stuff below, and I do have a few more public pensions in crisis posts upcoming this week)

Time for the tax stuff.

OLD STORY: THE TAXES ARE TOO DAMN HIGH IN CHICAGO

Chicago homeowners are suffocating under pensions and property tax hikes

The nation is more than a decade past the Great Recession, and most places are seeing a strong economic recovery and improved living standards.

Not in Chicago, and not in Illinois.

August statistics from the National Association of Realtors noted the city and state’s real estate market has severely underperformed, a trend forecasted to continue in the third quarter of this year. While the Midwest and the nation as a whole saw a very minor dip in home sales and surging Midwest home prices, Chicago missed the wave. Home sales in the Windy City experienced a 13.3% plunge, and the typical home sale price is barely climbing at all.

Chicago homeowners nervously sit on properties that are still worth 30% less, adjusted for inflation, than when the economy collapsed in December 2007. Adding insult to injury, property taxes on those devalued properties are up 20%. And there are fewer potential buyers, with the city and state losing population in each of the past four and five years, respectively.
…
Less than half of every new Illinois property tax dollar in the past 20 years has gone towards core services to improve communities. In Cook County, where Chicago is located, 77 cents of every new dollar for police and fire has gone to pensions instead of protective services. Pensions remain in crisis despite those rising property taxes and a slew of other new taxes at both the state and city levels.

If things seem bad now, just imagine what will happen when the next recession hits. All signs point in the wrong direction. Chicago is the bellwether for a looming national crisis, as its real estate is suffering worst out of the nation’s 10 largest cities relative to before the Great Recession.

So most of the money for Chicago police & fire is going to pensions? And why would that be?

(Chicago Fire is not in the database). So, you paid less than half of the required contributions to the pensions for years, and still don’t make full contributions — and you’re surprised the pensions are a big money sink? Hmmm?

What was that about public pensions not being in a crisis?

PUBLIC PENSIONS IN CRISIS SERIES

Yes, I’m inserting this in my tax post. In case you’ve missed my series on public pensions in crisis, here ya go:

I do have a part 5 coming up for tomorrow.

TAX STORIES

On that last item — gives an idea for those who try wealth or transaction taxes.

The power to tax is the power to destroy — and yes, the people who propose these taxes know it, and the destruction is not an unfortunate side effect, but what they intended.

Now, if they’re so stupid to not realize the power of taxation, then they shouldn’t be given that power.

TAX TWEETS

Have fun with the audit!

“Rorting?”

Oh, it is a thing:

rort (plural rorts)

(Australia, New Zealand) A scam or fraud, especially involving the misappropriation of public money or resources.

Ah. I learned something.

I just assume Bernie deliberately wants to destroy wealth. Because he was smart enough to collect more houses than others own, so I assume he knows what taxes do.

Yeah, y’all waste time on that crap. It’s better than passing destructive taxes.

Wait, Trump’s got more tax cuts on the way? (there has been some chatter over a variety of potential tax cuts, but I think it’s all leaks & rumors right now…and the normal August silly stuff)

See you next week with more tax stuff!


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