Chicago tops nation in tax burden for travelers

chicagotribune.com ^ | Sep 10, 2012

[KeyLargo]

Chicago tops nation in tax burden for travelers

For an average visit to downtown Chicago, a traveler will pay about $40.31 in combined taxes per day, a study finds. Three Florida cities tied for lowest cost.

By Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times

September 10, 2012

Chicago, the city that brought us deep-dish pizza, Oprah and "da Bears," is also home to the nation's highest tax burden for travelers.

The lowest taxes imposed on travelers can be found in the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach.

Those are among the findings of new research by the GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Assn., a trade group for travel managers.

The foundation created a ranking of the destinations with the nation's highest and lowest tax burden on travelers by combining general sales taxes and taxes charged to travelers each day for car rentals, hotel stays and meals.

For an average visit to downtown Chicago, a traveler will pay about $40.31 in combined taxes per day, according to the research. Also high on the list of travel taxes were New York ($37.98), Boston ($34.83), Kansas City, Mo., ($34.58) and Seattle ($34.43), the study said.

[KeyLargo]

Besides the chance of being murdered in Chicago if you visit the murder capital your pockets will be empty after the Democrats tax you for that privilege.

[TurboZamboni]

Come for the taxes, stay for your funeral.

[omega4412]

The transient occupancy tax — and any other tax on travelers at a higher rate than the local sales tax — ought to be ruled unconstitutional. Nominal grounds: an interference with interstate commerce. Actual grounds: taxation without representation.

[agere_contra]

LOL, brilliant.

[mom4melody]

Yes, and add in the up-charges for Union hotels and you ahve an Event managers nightmare.

[freedumb2003]

Corruption doesn’t come cheap.

[bmwcyle]

It covers the 38% graft to the mob.

[freedumb2003]

One may wonder why Kansas City is there with much more attractive venues.

it is because KC is the dead center of the country (by air). That makes logistics really easy for putting together large gatherings of nationwide firms.

I spent almost a year in KC and it was the longest 10 years of my life.

[Tenacious 1]

When we have to visit Chicago, we fill up in Indiana and buy a lunch to take into the city. We do our business and get out.

Our goal is usually to not spend any money there or get caught in gang related crossfire.

[swamp40]

Well, honestly the killings are almost entirely in the poor neighborhoods.

The downtown area is completely gentrified and safe.

My favorite Chicago tax is on the rental vehicles ANYWHERE in the upper half of the state. I have no idea how they pulled that one off.

My second favorite Chicago trick is how they sold off 20 years of street parking rights to a private company for billions of dollars, which they then blew thru in a year.

The private company then immediately doubled the rates and quadrupled+ the enforcement.

[Dr. Sivana]

The transient occupancy tax — and any other tax on travelers at a higher rate than the local sales tax — ought to be ruled unconstitutional. Nominal grounds: an interference with interstate commerce. Actual grounds: taxation without representation.

Nope.

It is not unconstitutional.

First, most of the items you might consider transient tazes (e.g. hotel and rental car taxes) apply equally to those who use the services who are in state, so it does not interfere with interstate commerce.

Second, the taxation without representation bit not only is NOT in the Constitution, but was never intended to apply to transient folks.

Third, if NH, for instance, scaled back their transient taxes, it would be impossible for them to meet numerous fed mandates, stay solvent, and still have neither an income nor a sales tax.

Fourth, such taxes have existed from the very beginning of the Republic.

States rights.

I live in Illinois, I would certainly know better than to schedule a convention in the greater Chicago area. Besides parking (I paid $60 total in parking last time I wen to Chicago ... and on a SUNDAY, when many cities have free street parking), the tiniest amenity requires an electrician or a carpenter from the Union or an exorbitant fee (this includes such luxuries as an electrical outlet or useable cell or wifi).

Word gets out, and more events get scheduled in Ft. Myers than in Chicago.

[Huskrrrr]

[KeyLargo]

Rahm now is planning to have 800 ‘Urban campsites’ (stress homeless bums), on land that was formerly a very active business airport which was destroyed by the previous mayor of Chicago.

Northerly Island Reimagined As Urban Camping Destination
August 16, 2012 5:45 AM

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/08/16/plans-for-northerly-island-park-set-to-go-ahead/

Former Chicago Mayor Daley bulldozed the lakefront airport, which destroyed the chance of businesses continuing to have conventions in Chicago. Most large businesses now hold conventions only in business friendly cities.

Barack Obama and Bulldozer Democracy

Daley is perhaps Barack Obama’s biggest and most important political patron as Jeremiah Wright is his most important religious leader and Rezko his biggest early financial backer. Obama got his start in politics as part of Daley’s political machine. Obama was an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004, while the Meigs saga was playing out. As a Daley acolyte, Obama never said a word about Daley’s execrable trampling of the rights of Meigs Field, its businesses and users, and its supporters. To Daley/Obama, the only important thing is getting what they want. Oh, one more thing. Obama’s wife, Michelle, was a member of the Chicago Planning Commission while the destruction of Meigs was being planned in secret. She, like Obama, refuses to talk about this criminal enterprise. If Obama is elected president, it seems a safe bet that the country can expect Bulldozer Politics to quickly spread nationwide. “

http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=1&f=147&t=858324

[Dr. Sivana]

Back to regular view    

suntimes

 

 

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Teen ‘flash mob’ robberies on Michigan Avenue on the rise

BY FRANK MAIN AND FRAN SPIELMAN

Staff Reporters

Last Modified: Jun 22, 2011 06:55PM

At a mall outside Milwaukee, parents must escort their teens on weekends because of rampant shoplifting there.

In St. Louis, Las Vegas and Philadelphia, text-messaging “flash mobs” of youths have swooped into stores, stealing merchandise and running away.

And here in Chicago, shoplifting arrests of juveniles have jumped in the police district that includes the Magnificent Mile — even though retail-theft arrests as a whole have fallen slightly.

Chicago’s juvenile theft problem gained a high profile earlier this year when stores on North Michigan Avenue were repeatedly targeted by large groups of young shoplifters.

In January, 11 teens yanked clothes off the racks of The North Face, Filene’s Basement and AX Armani Exchange and ran away with the loot, but were quickly arrested. Police believe they coordinated the attack through text messages. One young thief yelled “Snatch!” to initiate the shoplifting. Another shouted “meet you on the Red Line!”

In the Near North police district, which includes North Michigan Avenue, overall retail-theft arrests were down about 2 percent in the first four months of 2011, compared with the same period last year. But juvenile shoplifting arrests were up at least 10 percent, said Kenneth Angarone, commander of the district.

Most of those juveniles were taken to the police station for “station adjustments” and released to their parents, Angarone said.

Police said they have been monitoring social networking sites, boosted the presence of officers on North Michigan Avenue and worked with stores to improve security.

As a result, there have been fewer cases of flash mobs targeting Mag Mile stores in recent months, Angarone said. But smaller groups — of two or three teens at a time — are continuing to shoplift in the area, he said.

“Is there an epidemic? No,” said John C. Chikow, president of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. “Is there an issue? Absolutely.”

Chikow said Chicago’s shoplifting problem mimics what’s going on in other big cities. Still, he said juvenile shoplifting attacks are “periodic” here.

“It’s not like every Friday and Saturday night kids are running into a store on the Avenue and taking stuff,” he said. “But yes, this still happens.”

Chikow said he thinks such shoplifting is the latest form of thrill-seeking for juveniles. He pointed to one teen who was arrested for shoplifting recently. When his parents picked him up at the police station, they said they were perplexed because they had taken him to the same store to shop the previous week.

“They said he didn’t have a reason to steal anything,” Chikow said.

Angarone said parents need to watch for their kids coming home with clothes or other merchandise they cannot afford. Parents also need to monitor their kids’ social-networking activities, he said.

“This is a parental problem more than anything else,” Angarone said.

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), whose ward includes the Mag Mile, said some of the shoplifting involves a “highly coordinated attempt by adult criminals to recruit juveniles” — especially young women. Prosecutors said that is possible, but no adults have been charged in connection with juvenile flash-mob thefts. Still, officials are watching closely to see if any of the loot is winding up on eBay or secondhand stores. Reilly said the problem is not limited to the Magnificent Mile, but affects shopping centers across the city. “It’s the latest brand of retail theft,” he said.

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Copyright © 2012 — Sun-Times Media, LLC

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[Calvin Locke]

I'm surprised the FAA didn't come down on Daley for that.

I'm even more surprised he didn't sell it to a developer, which I thought was the original purpose of destroying it.

[KeyLargo]

“The downtown area is completely gentrified and safe.”

Oh really?

When was the last time that you visited downtown Chicago?

Chicago Muggings: 7 Teens Charged In ‘Mob-Style’ Attacks Downtown (VIDEO)

Posted: 06/11/2012 9:27 am Updated: 06/11/2012 6:06 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/11/chicago-muggings-8-charge_n_1586129.html

Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Chicago’s Magnificent Mile Is Now Mugger Mile
Janet Tavakoli emails her latest report from the epicenter of broke local governments and out of control roaming gangs. I am not in sync with all her recommend solutions, but the facts she presents are alarming:

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/06/chicagos-magnificent-mile-is-now-mugger.html

VIDEO:

http://www.chicagonewsreport.com/2012/06/video-dangerous-black-mobs-infest.html

Loyola on alert after flash mob offenders strike McDonald’s

Posted by emn2011 on April 12, 2011
http://loyolastudentdispatch.com/2011/04/12/flash-mob-offenders-strike-near-loyola-again/

Media Covers Up Violence Of Flash Mobs
August 2, 2012 11:40 AM

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/08/02/media-covers-up-violence-of-flash-mobs/

Chicago Gangs Go ‘Wilding’ Amid Rising Gun Violence in Obama’s Hometown
Aug 31, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
As the president preps for his Democratic Party convention coronation, homicides in his hometown the first three months of this year have spiked 60 percent over the same period in 2011, and gangs are preying on citizens in a phenomenon called ‘wilding.’

When the impulse hits them, the teens occasionally proceed east along Chicago Avenue, passing the tony Park Hyatt Hotel, an Anthropologie store, and a Ralph Lauren store that has an adjoining RL Grill, its outdoor tables adorned with white tablecloths and tended by white-aproned waiters. The coiffed and preened diners look up from such offerings as wild Alaskan sockeye salmon and goat-cheese tart.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/31/chicago-gangs-go-wilding-amid-rising-gun-violence-in-obama-s-hometown.html

[mom4melody]

Yes, and add in the up-charges for Union hotels and you have an Event managers nightmare.

[KeyLargo]

“I’m surprised the FAA didn’t come down on Daley for that.”

Oh, but yes. Mayor Daley sent the chump change bill to the taxpayers. Daley had a big laugh over that.

FAA fines Chicago over Meigs Field

By: Steve Daniels September 06, 2005

The Federal Aviation Administration is moving to fine the city of Chicago $33,000 in connection with the sudden closure of Meigs Field more than two years ago.

In an Aug. 31 letter to the city’s Department of Aviation, the FAA said it’s assessing the civil penalty because the city didn’t notify the FAA before demolishing the runways at Meigs Field. The city provided the federal agency with notification a short time afterwards, but by then the runways had been destroyed and the airport couldn’t be operated.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20050906/NEWS02/200017682?template=printart

[GOPJ]

If the thieves don’t take your money the city will... gotta love cities run by democrats...