The bar was always low for people to run for alderpersons in Chicago. When it comes to rookie alderman and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s floor leader, the bar was the lowest of the low. This aldercritter has the intelligence of a gnat. By the way, how does a rookie alderperson become the floor leader?
First, people who make over $100,000 per year are no longer the “haves.” They are barely upper middle class. He will be taxing cops, firefighters, EMTs, other city workers, trade union members, many teachers, and other working-class people. Also, many people who own successful small businesses and some professionals like nurses would pay. Then there are all the suburbanites from all economic backgrounds who work in the city. Oh, and his fellow aldermen and other city hall employees and appointees would be taxed.
Worse, he brings up the usual bugaboo that billionaires like Ken Griffith do/did not pay their fair share of taxes. There is a reason for that. People cannot pay a city income tax that does not exist. His other not-so-bright idea is to tax stocks and liquid assets of wealthy residents- whatever that means. What next? Will he try to tax IRAs and 401Ks that are stock and asset-heavy? Will he tax pensioners? Who will he and his band of merry thieves want to tax/punish next?
Alderperson Hall has other dimwitted ideas. He wants to turn vacant downtown buildings into a neon sign carnival like Times Square in New York. I have been to the neon stupidity in NYC. It is cheap, tawdry, and ugly. He wants Chicago to look cheap, tawdry, and ugly to raise revenues through the Digital Advertising Tax.
Hall wants to turn part of Northerly Island, formerly Meigs Field, into a heliport for people traveling to Ohare. He also wants to use the heliport at the former Cook County Hospital for the same purpose. Maybe someone should tell the aldercritter that there is plenty of vacant land all over this city to put heliports. But he wants to destroy parks and open spaces for his stupidity.
Hall and his fellow aldercritters who believe in this nonsense should make their federal and state income taxes public so we, the citizens, can see how much money they are sheltering to avoid paying their fair share of taxes on their six-figure incomes and their other outside endeavors. The position of alderperson is a part-time job, by definition. What part-time job pays six-figure salaries with expense accounts and Rolls Royce benefits?
We have enough punitive taxes and fees in this city that people from all incomes must pay. Try going to a sports game or a concert. The fees and taxes are ridiculously high, and they affect people from all economic backgrounds. Then there are the hotel taxes and other entertainment fees and taxes.
Aldercritter Hall believes in tax parity and equity- whatever that means. Once again a less-on (Lower than a moron) Chicago politician wants to punish people through taxation, neon blight, and noisy whirly bird ports. As I wrote above, the bar is low to become an alderman. In rookie alderman Hall’s case, the bar is the lowest of the low.