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A new report finds that Illinois' tax threshold is so low it still taxes working families living under the poverty level.
Illinois: hitting up the poor for their bottom dollar
trueslant.com - 2 weeks ago - 53 views
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I've known people who could barely afford to pay rent and buy their food and pay utilities (no air conditioning, of course, no matter how hot is gets), and they always ended up paying Illinois income tax. It's mind boggling, especially when taxes on our food, utilities and household supplies hit lower income people with more severity. Any % out of their income is going to be a bigger bite because the baseline is already so low.
I agree - it is mindboggling.
I think what's especially weird is that people always complain that they're paying the taxes that support programs for low-income families. But everyone is paying those taxes! They're still paying income tax and sales tax, and a lot of it, considering what they make.
I just wonder if we saved that $200 a year from every poor family, would we really lose out that much?
For people who are in dire need, $200 can make a lot of difference. I've known people who lived in shelters, and people who, after they paid their rent, had very little left over for utilities and food. So another question might be, how much money might be freed up from other programs that a person might not have to access if they had still had that $200 in their pocket?
When it comes to low income assistance, some of the solutions, even well meaning, can be mind boggling even from the private sector like with the utility companies.
How low the Illinois income tax hits is certainly a major problem. However, I feel the high level of sales tax in Illinois is at least equal to if not a greater problem. Sales taxes are the most regressive, since everyone no matter how poor pays them, and for the poor here in Chicago they are the highest in the nation when we already have a high cost of living. And while everyone keeps attacking the Cook County Board for this, I'm pretty sure the majority of it goes to the state.
I agree. It's hard to believe that at one time, in 1979, the sales tax was 5% prior to the County increase of 1% that made it 6%.
Out of the 5.25 % increases since 1978, it would be interesting to know how much of these came from the County. It seems from looking at the history of the County increases, that a good percent of this added change did come from the County.
It isn't just the sales taxes that are regressive, since we also have utility taxes which can add up even if a person's utility use is low.
Here's a timeline of many of the increases:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cook+county+sales+tax+increases+over+hist...
According to the link follow, the current Illinois sales tax is 6.25% as of January 2008. So, since 1978 the Illinois rate has only increased 1.25%. So the County has done the majority of the increasing, though the state is still the larger burden.
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