respublica

Illinois' big new year

A couple of things of interest to those who live in Illinois, and that will be us come next summer.

New taxes and fees on driving will add up to 1.98 Billion dollars. That's new taxes on top of taxes already in effect. This is outrageous. Supposedly all this new money will be used to prop up infrastructure. Where have we heard this before.  You can see the new taxes for drivers here.

These taxes may have something to do with this figure: Illinois has lost more population over the pasts decade than any other state. A large percentage of that drop came just over the last year as the state's population lost more than 51,000 people between 2018 and 2019 alone.

Rebuild Illinois is Governor Pritzger's new motto. But rebuild for whom?

To make this work, there must be a need for people to pay them and those people need jobs. Illinois' job growth is going down fast. Last month alone Illinois saw 17,200 jobs lost. In Missouri last month showed a gain of 11,310 jobs. Here is a list of all the states showing jobs lost or gained.

Gas prices

This is in aid of nothing really, but we found it interesting. As we left the campus last night heading for Ted Drewes to get our Christmas tree, we passed numerous gas stations. The first was the Big Amoco famous for its huge sign and continuing on past stations on McCausland and Jamison. The prices ranged from 34 cents a gallon to 25 to 33 to 31 and 25 again.  Each being 2 dollars and change. We thought those were quite the variation in price for such a short distance between each one.

It had to have something to do with what municipality each station was in and the taxes each required. Still, 2.34 cents a gallon was certainly lower than what we saw in Collinsville yesterday.

As to Ted Drewes, it was packed with people. We innocently believed that after a long day of various church things, leaving at 5:30 after a beautiful Advent service put on by our students, the crowds would be less than during the day. We were so wrong. There were long lines at all the frozen custard windows, cars parked everywhere, and many other people looking for trees. But we found our tree immediately which is rare.

I was reminded by Facebook yesterday that on the same date in 2012 we were again at Ted Drewes getting our tree. The photo made me happy and sad all at the same time.

We often took Ferdie with us to get our tree at Ted Drewes. I miss him so much, especially seeing this picture with him and a smile.

 

Want a reason for the exodus from Illinois?

This is a very informative opinion column on Illinois taxes from the Chicago Tribune's Kristen McQueary.

"The typical retort when taxpayers gripe about taxation is to point out the services rendered in exchange. Public schools, public safety, park districts and libraries largely are funded through local property taxes. So quit your whining.

But that isn’t the whole story in Illinois, Chicago or Cook County, where property tax hikes levied and collected increasingly are being swallowed up by pension costs for retired workers, health care costs for active workers and debts accumulated to patch up unbalanced budgets. Property owners and income tax payers are getting the same or fewer services while their tax bills climb and their property values remain stagnant."

"Acquiring debt is too cavalier a process in most government spending bills. The state’s $45 billion capital spending plan, approved last spring, includes money toward a highway interchange for a Peotone airport, pickleball courts, dog parks and bike paths. Meanwhile the state is sitting on a pile of $5.8 billion in bills it cannot pay, and its combined unfunded pension liability climbed recently to $137 billion."

Welcome to Indiana, Missouri and Iowa Illinois folks.

Thank you everyone who voted for this guy

Too often being elected to something makes a person greedy. So it is with Illinois governor, JB Pritzker who has not only signed a huge bill with nine tax and fee hikes worth 45 billion dollars as part of his budget address, including the graduated tax. His recently released capital plan adds another 10 that would ask Illinoisans to pay $2.4 billion more.

The new 2.4 billion will raise taxes on booze, beer and cider by 50 percent making Illinois among the highest booze tax rates in the country. Couple that with the doubling of the fuel tax and income tax and the people of that state will basically be working for taxes.

I'd guess this doesn't bode all that well for businesses that sell these things located near the boundary of neighboring states. If it's possible to get gas and beer or wine across the way, who wouldn't. Some places will just throw in the towel.

Currently Illinois beer tax is 23 cents per gallon, third highest in the country. Missouri tax is .03 and Indiana is .12.  Illinois wine tax is 1.39, Missouri-.42 and Indiana .47

The hard liquor Illinois tax is currently 8.55  Missouri 2.00 and Indiana 2.68

If you are near one of the other states, why not buy your beer and spirits and gas while you're there?

 

The new Illinois Capitol Bill

There is a new spending bill being introduced beginning in East St. Louis today by Governor J.B. Pritzker. He will be "touting" a massive infrastructure program. He is going to sign the state’s $45 billion Rebuild Illinois Capital a six-year program aimed at fixing roads and state facilities, among other things, according to sources with knowledge of the governor’s tentative schedule.

And where is all this money going to be coming from? "In order to pay for the statewide capital and infrastructure investment, the General Assembly passed an increase in gas taxes, vehicle registration, the cigarette tax, and a gaming expansion which includes sports betting."

The gas tax is going to double beginning Sunday going from 19 cents a gallon to 38 cents. That is one big increase and look for more people to head over to Missouri or Indiana to buy gas whenever possible. The entire list of projects is here. But one of the more wasteful uses of this money is for urban farming in East St. Louis.

I mean, come on. My experience with urban farming, those neighborhood community gardens, is that they start off well in spring, but by mid-summer and beyond they have turned into a huge overgrown weed patch. No one bothers to tend them once it's done. Each year at the start of the seminary's school year we send out all the first year students and many staff people to clean up those gardens. It's a great experience really, and brings the new class together. I've gone each year and take pictures of before and after. But it still bugs the heck out of me that these urban gardens are left to rot in almost all cases.

So why allocate money for this.

Here are a couple of those gardens we worked.

Read more here: https://www.bnd.com/news/politics-government/article231975582.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.bnd.com/news/politics-government/article231975582.html#storylink=cpy

The taxers are always a step ahead

Looks like many states aren't satisfied with the amount of money brought in by the gas taxes and a few are now considering a 'vehicle miles traveled' fee. Also known as a '   mileage-based user fee'.    Fee is a laugh, it's still a tax and cost us more. Delaware and Pennsylvania will be testing this idea out with 1000  volunteer drivers. They will be given a device which will track their miles and at the end of each month will be sent a 'faux invoice'.

The only issue the people behind this test haven't figured out yet is how to make sure future drivers will pay the bills they get. Also if this become law or general practice, we'll also be paying for the devices and who knows what all else. Government never has enough money.

Two good road questions today

Monday's Post-Dispatch regularly has a column named, "Ask the Road Guys" which as it name suggests, is for readers to send in questions they have about highway or surface roads. Today's column was interesting to me and I'd link it but I can never find it on the paper's website. When I typed in Ask the Road Guys, I received a series of stories on sports. Here is the first question:

"I know this has been asked before, but with all the rain we've had, it was so hard to see the lane markers-is ground glass possible when the stripes are painted?"

The answer: "We do mix reflective glass beads into the paint when we do re-striping work. On many state highways we also include reflective markers that are placed into pavement to avoid getting removed during snowplowing operations. We do continue to look at the latest federally approved materials to see what may work for Missouri's climate conditions."

All I have to say is, you can't see the lane lines in the dark and wet, and often on overcast days. So here is what Tennessee highways look like in the dark,  something you MoDOT folks may want to emulate.

How gorgeous is this? Even the metal side rails are glowing in the dark.

Question 2: 'What is up with the third lane from the right on the eastbound Poplar Street Bridge? It is striped wider than the other lanes. It reminds me of that episode from Seinfeld where Kramer painted over the lane markings to make them wider?"

I've noticed this too, as well as how rough the bridge lanes seem to be. The answer is:

"It is wider-this was all temporary striping done in December to get the bridge done. Some of it was done over the old lane lines to avoid the temporary striping coming off and creating confusion. In the spring, we'll remove and replace all the striping."

In the spring...

Tax on meat is gaining support

My post the other day on the suggestion by a group of science experts that we tax the heck out of meat was one of those articles I believed was on the extreme end of things and was more laughable than serious. But now I find the New York Times opinion page has weighed in and they agree.

"Chatham House, the influential British think tank, attributes 14.5 percent of global emissions to livestock — “more than the emissions produced from powering all the world’s road vehicles, trains, ships and airplanes combined.” Livestock consume the yield from a quarter of all cropland worldwide. Add in grazing, and the business of making meat occupies about three-quarters of the agricultural land on the planet."

The editorial goes on to say that a carbon tax on just beef would be a good way to start since it would turn households toward those meats with a smaller carbon footprint, like chicken or pork. Like chicken isn't in everything already. In any event most greenhouse gas experts do not believe this will happen, people all over the world eat meat. So, the writer ends with this sad trombone:

"Still, the idea of a carbon tax on beef makes me think. I crave the aroma of beef, from a burger, or a barbecue brisket cooked low and slow. It’s just harder to enjoy it now when I can also catch the faint whiff of methane lingering 20 years into our increasingly uncertain future."

What experts?

A story headline yesterday: "Experts say we should tax meat eaters the same way we tax smokers."

My first reaction was, "What experts"?  

"investment analysts suggest passing on the costs of the meat sector’s impacts to those directly responsible, the same way we tax smokers. The simple idea of the so-called meat tax is that if your burger ends up costing as much as a plate of caviar, you may decide to explore vegetarian options."

So whoever these experts are they want us to become vegetarians which opens a whole new set of problems. But I checked the link to the source and lo and behold its a farm animal investment initiative about which I know nothing. However want to raise investor awareness of the material impacts farm animal welfare issues can have on portfolios. 

But much of the story relates how how Meat production degrades the environment by releasing greenhouse gas emissions and using up a disproportionate amount of landand water per unit of protein.

So it's really a story about taxing all of us who choose to eat meat so high that we turn to broccoli and other vegetable products which can be made to look like meat.

End highway rest stops?

A post on St. Louis Urban Review contained a poll which asked readers, "Should Missouri Close Interstate Rest Stops?"

Well that stopped me in my tracks. I sure hope Missouri isn't considering doing this, those rest stops are the saving grace of long road trips. It seems that several states have already closed theirs-Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and South Dakota among others with Connecticut close to doing the same. They did this because of state transportation budget shortfalls.

Although Urban Review admits there is no known plan in Missouri to do this, it just might be one of those fair warning type things. Losing these rest stops take away the most convenient opportunity for drivers to do what they have to do and get back on the road. Plus you don't have to feel as though you need to buy something as you would pulling into an off ramp gas station or fast food place.