[Peace-discuss] [Discuss] Comments on last evening's Champaign mayoral debate

Fri Mar 20 01:02:58 EDT 2015

I would ask that everyone remember that property taxes can be almost as regressive as sales taxes.  In Illinois, people who own their home get a "homestead exemption".  Those of us who rent do not this.  Renters tend to have lower incomes.
In Champaign County, the homestead exemption is for the first $6,000 of property value.  (I don't know who sets this amount, or how it is determined.  I just know a few years ago it was $5500.)  This means homeowners are taxed on less of their property's value than those who rent, who are paying the property tax rate on the first through the final dollar of the value of the property they are renting.  I have seen examples of houses costing less than $100,000, where the owner paid about half of the tax amount of the renter.  I'm open to explanations of how this is fair.
The lack of a homestead exemption is a large part of the reason city officials are so happy to see student housing developed, especially when the apartments are projected to rent at $800/month or more, per bedroom.
I suspect Deb Feinen's support of property over sales taxes means she's figured some way to game the system and set  up a system where the property owners have a lesser burden than they would if they were paying property and sales taxes.  I would need to see a few examples of her proposal before I would be willing to support it.
Lynn Stuckey

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:53:04 +0000
To: carl at newsfromneptune.com
CC: discuss-communitycourtwatch at lists.chambana.net; peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net; sf-core at yahoogroups.com; occupyCU at lists.chambana.net
Subject: Re: [Discuss] [Peace-discuss] Comments on last evening's Champaign mayoral debate
From: discuss-communitycourtwatch at lists.chambana.net

I don't know about Feinin, but of course I would agree with her about property taxes vs. sales taxes. I also agree about a wealth tax, as long as we're living in the "politically not possible anyway" world. Perhaps marginally more politically possible would be a local income tax surcharge that would effect only households making over 100K. I haven't found any legal obstacles to this, although I'm not sure. That would seem easier to calculate and collect than a broader wealth tax. The money would be coming from the same people anyway. They've been allowed to have (by means of their own power and position, not by merit) increased incomes that result in Pikkety's wealth accumulation findings. By taxing the income of this group, we would be impeding only their accumulation of investable assets, or fictitious wealth. They would still have the same standard of living. Of course, if there was a way of going at the real wealth of the 1%, you could get more from fewer.      On Thursday, March 19, 2015 1:31 PM, C. G. Estabrook <carl at newsfromneptune.com> wrote:      Thank you for doing this David - both for attending, so I didn’t have to & could stay home & watch the Bulls (since I don’t like either exploited athletes [NCAA] or endangered ones [NFL] - but Barca is fun) and for analyzing, so I could learn more from you than I had so far from the press re the local mayoralty election.Tax questions seem one of the few substantive matters that might differentiate the candidates. As a Pikettian who holds that we should tax wealth (progressively) rather than income, either personal or business (if you tax something, you get less of it  - the theory behind cigarette taxes), I think that about all one can do on the local level is support property taxes and oppose consumption (sales) taxes, which are necessarily regressive.  One of Feinen’s people told me that she, in contrast to the others, opposes sales taxes and supports property taxes instead. True?Regards, CGE> On Mar 19, 2015, at 11:47 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:> > The mayoral candidates convened last evening. The video will be re-broadcast at 11 this evening, and innumerable times thereafter at all hours of the morning.> All of the four candidates recognized that poverty is an issue. They hope, and perhaps pray, for economic development and jobs. Mayor Gerard implied that he has something to do with a lower unemployment rate in Champaign County since he took office. I have my doubts whether the real unemployment rate is much lower, about the nature of new jobs, and about the relationship of any of that to his policies, including the summer youth jobs for which he takes credit.> There seemed to be a consensus in support of TIFs, and for Bristol Place development. I have my doubts whether that constitutes an economic development strategy. Joe Petry claimed to have a detailed economic vision on his website; I can’t seem to find that on his website.> All are proud of our new hotels.> They all love the idea of combatting “sprawl” and promoting in-fill. Gerard mentioned the national award that Champaign received regarding its population density, even though it’s not an island like New York City, which got an even better mark and which just isn't fair. I’m no authority on local issues, including this one, but it would seem that there are some contradictions here. Do we not have sprawl? Do not the developers want to create more sprawl? Won’t any of these candidates have to please the developers? It was seen as a feather in the cap of in-fill that Worden-Martin moved (was bribed to move?) to Anthony Drive. That seems to me a pretty low bar regarding urban planning. Or perhaps the more popular expression is "low-hanging fruit."> Gerard is running partly on his alleged support for organized labor. Last night he lauded Phyllis Wise, whom we are “lucky to have.” Thus there may be a contradiction between his support for Wise and his alleged support for labor on campus. Gerard is proud of everything he’s done, all the people he’s ever worked with, and indeed all the people he’s met. Champaign is the “best city in the country.” (Full disclosure: I enjoy living in Champaign more than Los Angeles or Chicago.). However he did, he reminded us, talk back to Gov. Rauner. But I'm not getting my pitchfork ready to join him at the governor's door.> I submitted a question about discrimination against African-Americans in traffic stops, fines, etc. They all agreed that the police should “look more like the community.” Anthony Cobb, they said, is making that happen. They all agreed that Chief Cobb is a stellar figure who will work to solve these problems. They invoked community policing; however, I doubt that the premises or track record of what is called “community policing” offer much hope for meaningful change. It would seem, and I’m sure that it’s obvious to most of those reading this, that such change would have to come at more fundamental levels of economic equality and ending the war on drugs and mass incarceration. The latter wasn’t mentioned, as far as I can recall, although I did lose focus a few times.> Deb Feinin was at the meeting at the Urbana Civic Center a few weeks ago about traffic stops, etc. So she is aware that there is a genuine problem. Unfortunately, I’m still vague about the level of that problem in Champaign in comparison to a place like Ferguson. It would be good to have more data about fines, jailing, etc., but that doesn’t work for a question written on a note card.> Karen Foster, as reported in the N-G, was the only candidate willing to consider raising taxes to meet possible budget deficits. She might get my vote just on that basis, if I vote, even though she’s the most poorly spoken of the lot. But perhaps that’s a point in her favor. Feinen said that it would be a shame to raise taxes, just as jobs are picking up. But if you lay people off from government, then you lose both jobs and taxes. But you don’t learn that in law school.> In sum, Joe Petry would probably make the best technocrat among them, although of course the other three have more experience in city government per se. Petry seems like a genuinely conscientious guy. I could be wrong, but I could picture having an intelligent and productive conversation with him.> I was confirmed in my belief that I don’t think a whole lot of Don Gerard.> Concluding editorial comment: My back-of-the-envelope calculation is that the yearly income of the top 20% of household in Champaign (6000 or so) totals over $1 billion, probably a conservative estimate, and leaving their wealth aside. In this state, that strata pays 7-8% in state/local taxes, while the bottom quintile pays 13%. A 3-5% surcharge on the adjusted gross income of this group could easily net $20-30 million, but there’s no reason why at least $50 million shouldn’t be taxed from this group in order to put a lot more people to work providing services. City government, with broad public participation, should decide what services the people need, how many jobs it wants to create, and then tax on that basis.> The total locally funded budgets of Champaign city, schools, parks, and libraries are probably about $180 million. Given the wealth of our community (over $4 billion GDP, City of Champaign), there’s no reason for these services to be so hard-pressed. But of course the reason they are is that none of the candidates can broach the topic of going to where the money is, from those who have the most and need it the least, and of course have the most influence on politics and campaign funding, even at the local penny-ante level.> Of course, all of this would be more efficiently done at the county or state levels. But there's no reason for local municipalities not to set an example. Phyllis Wise isn't going to pack up her bags and move to Monticello.> Conclusion: a good socialist would have made for an interesting evening. But at least they didn’t let Barb Wysocki be the moderator. That’s what allowed me to stay awake throughout.>  > _______________________________________________> Peace-discuss mailing list> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss       
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