Comments on: Local: New restaurant tax is hard to swallow

By: anotherexjser

anotherexjser — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:37:40 +0000

Has anyone considered that Christi may be engaging in satire?

By: SD

SD — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:57:10 +0000

Basket full of tax breaks for homeowners? Where the heck are they? I’ve been missing the boat all this time. Geesh all these years I’ve been paying on my home and nobody told me about this. Thanks a lot.

By: Sud O. Nym

Sud O. Nym — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:05:01 +0000

Also, let’s not pretend that renters don’t pay property tax. They might not write a check directly to the gov’t, but they write it to their landlord, who then writes a check to the gov’t. Owning rental property is an investment. Property tax is part of the plan, and I would guess that most landlord do quite fine in the end.

The rest of Christi’s inanity was handled well by 11Bravo. Truly a pathetic statement.

By: Mahkno

Mahkno — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:43:47 +0000

From the Seattle Times:

“Among homeowners nationwide, an estimated one-half itemize, but one-third of all homeowners have no mortgage debt against their property, and therefore do not claim mortgage interest as a deduction.”

And those without mortgages are also not paying any interest either. Their net cash flow is higher even if their taxes paid are higher than those itemizing.

By: Super J

Super J — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:52:45 +0000

RomanII said: “The museum idea is ridiculous, but not brought forward by Cat. Letâ€™s get on with something in that block that we all can take advantage of make use of.”

THANK YOU.

In Bloomington, we just went through this debacle. A large majority (over 70%) of the voters passed a referendum against the US Cellular Coliseum. Of course, the council ignored that referendum and voted to build it anyway. The thing’s been swimming in red ink ever since.

Then, the citizenry gets criticized for not supporting a facility THAT WE SAID WE DIDN’T WANT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Just goes to show you the kind of influence that politically connected developers and construction companies wield.

By: Brian G

Brian G — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:01:54 +0000

FYI The city of Pekin is considering a two percent restaurant tax. It has been discussed at the staff level but has not yet been put on the agenda for the council.

If you really want to defeat this, this is wahat you do. You go to the Board meeting with two packages. One is a take out meal from Avanti’s or some other prominentlocally owned business, the other is from Swinger’s World. You mention that the Swinger’s World is taxed at a lower rate than a meal for a family. No politician will vote to tax a spaghetti dinner at a higher rate than a sex toy. And I bet no one will ever bring it up again.

By: Diane Vespa

Diane Vespa — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:59:56 +0000

Eyebrows – I beg to differ. The only tax breaks for homeowners are the real estate taxes and the interest portion of their mortgage payment, IF they itemize.

Many families discover that their standard exemption exceeds these itemized costs, so effectively, for many, it has no impact.

I realize that being a Realtor, I should technically not be arguing that point as it seems counter-intuitive. But to me the greater good is that homebuyers have a full understanding of the consequences of home ownership, whatever that may be.

By: Eyebrows McGee

Eyebrows McGee — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:11:08 +0000

“I understand the desire to have everyone pull their own weight, but to outright denigrate and belittle an entire economic class is pretty low class regardless of which one you claim to be from.”

Moreover, a little knowledge of tax policy would inform her that sales tax is functionally regressive (though flat in intent), falling disproportionately on lower-income and lower-wealth members of the community. They WILL be paying more than their “fair share.”

@Christie: “Iâ€™m tired of being penalized because I own my home as opposed to living in section 8 housing or renting.”

Simple solution to that: Don’t own a home. Oh, wait, that would require you to give up the massive basket of tax breaks home ownership comes with, breaks that aren’t available to renters.

By: anotherexjser

anotherexjser — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:46:48 +0000

This is why people move across the river.

By: 11Bravo

11Bravo — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:27:15 +0000

Wow Christi, that was about as cold-hearted a post as I’ve seen recently. I understand the desire to have everyone pull their own weight, but to outright denigrate and belittle an entire economic class is pretty low class regardless of which one you claim to be from. And from an argument analysis standpoint, you shouldn’t make a claim like “tax McD’s because all the poor people eat there” and follow it up with “they don’t eat at McD’s anyway because they are so poor they eat at the soup kitchen”. It really just removes all doubt that the purpose of the post was to attack those less privileged.

If you are in fact from the upper echelon’s of Peoria society like you seem to claim, then you likely went to college and got a decent education. Hopefully at college you also learned that you shouldn’t stereotype people. I hope no unfortunate economic hardships befall your family because God knows, with people like you out there you’d likely be left starving and cold on the side of the road.