Blue Collar Muse

Paulie, a friend from Chicago and one of the handful of non-Obama Kool-Aid drinkers left in Cook County, has a great post up at Paulie’s Point on the results of Chicago’s recent efforts at generating revenue. I don’t know how many times it will need to be said before Democrats and the Left will get the message, but I’ll keep it up. Here goes …

Raising taxes is not a successful strategy to pursue if your goal is to end up with more money! Raising taxes will only result in less consumption of or participation in whatever is being taxed. That reduction usually far outstrips the revenue gained via the increase.

Cook County raised its sales tax to 10.25%, making it the highest in the nation. Paulie spills the beans that The Illinois Department of Revenue reports in the first month the increase went into effect, revenue plummeted nearly 12%!

A partial explanation is that a huge percentage of Cook County lies within easy driving distance of both Indiana and Wisconsin, not to mention other Illinois counties with lower sales taxes. Quick trips over a border to avoid ignorant, asinine and ineffective taxes are just part of the “We should have seen this coming!” reality obvious to anyone but Democratic Big Tax, Big Spenders.

To make matters worse, the flight outside Cook County does more than just hurt the city’s coffers. Business people and service providers lose revenue, too. Why should I buy gas or groceries in Cook County when I can drive 5 miles and save 10% or more? Over the course of a year, that’s serious savings for me and serious loss for businesses. When businesses lose money the cutback or close. That means even more revenue loss for the county as there are fewer working taxpayers and those that remain pay less because they make less. But Cook County Democrats don’t see that. Actually, most Democrats everywhere don’t see that.

At this point, they seem to only have two choices. They can demand people buy their highly and arbitrarily taxed goods, not because the price is good for the consumer but because Cook County REALLY needs the money. Or they can follow Tennessee’s lead and make criminals out of their citizens who have the sense to shop at places that are working for them and not against them.

Higher Taxes … just another bad idea from Democrats, Socialists and other Central Planners …

Blue Collar Muse

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