The cost of living just went up for Illinois residents, but not because of inflation or other economic conditions. Rather, today marks the effective date for increased taxes levied upon alcohol, candy, soft drinks and personal hygiene products. The taxes, part of the $31 billion capital bill, are designed to offset the costs of infrastructure spending across the state.
Starting today a fifth of liquor in Illinois will now cost an additional 81 cents, reflecting a 90% increase in the excise tax on hard liquor. In addition, a 90% increase on the taxation of a bottle of wine and 24% increase in taxes on beer will also hit Illinois consumers. Despite, the increased taxes going into effect today, consumers may not feel the full effect of the legislation until a month from now. Most liquor stores and grocers have stock-piled as much liquor as possible in an attempt to keep prices lower for consumers for as long as possible.
September 1st also marks the effective date for a more than 600% increase on the taxation of candy, soft drink, and health & beauty products. Illinois, following the lead of nearly a dozen other states, changed the tax classification on these products, marking the birth of a new era in which lawmakers target taxation on these products in the same manner that they have targeted alcohol and tobacco in the past.
In Illinois, the taxes on Candy (of which definitions of candy have caused massive retailer confusion), soft drink and personal hygiene products will increase from the past 1% sales tax rate to the state's general merchandise rate of 6.25%. As a result, every Illinois citizen will pay more for everything from sweet tea to toothpaste. The resulting increase will be felt more in the Chicago than other area as Chicago will now host not only the highest sales tax of any city in the United States, but also the highest alcohol taxes as well.
Comments
Okay alcohol I understand the rest I don't.
In the state that we are in with the economy, isn't this just great that now there is a tax increase to the people? And where does this extra money go to now? Interesting!!!
I don't understand why they are raising taxes in a bad economy. It doesn't make sense. If MO taxes are cheaper, I will be heading there to shop.
as if times arent hard enough they are now taxing any kind of simple pleasure or relaxation we try to find. If you dont drink they will stick it to you with candy. If you dont indulge in sweets it will cost you more to practice good hygiene. even a relaxing warm shower will now cost us more unless we dont use soap and shampoo. even if we decide on less showers they have now made it so that even pooping is going to cost us more(something none of us can avoid) no wonder crime is on the rise. we are drowning trying to provide the simple things for our familys, now i have to think twice about a piece of chocolate for my kids, and forget a separate baby shampoo for baby. she'll just have to close her eyes tight and use the grown up stuff. thanks Mayor Dailey.
Soda,shampoo, and soap were already at the higher tax of the area before this hike. In Decatur that was 8%. Only MEDICATED soaps and shampoos and baby powder were 1% before, now they will be more. Also for women and seniors, feminine hygiene products and products like Depends will likely now be the normal high sales tax instead of 1 %
im ready for anarchy f*** this bullshit taxes
The people who are for this tax are those who will get more on the back end than what they pay in. Now who is selfish? Forget more roads and bridges, just maintain what we have now. Where was the vote of the people for this? Is this a democracy?
I worked at a retail store for a decade, from 1996-2006, and as of 1999,any beverage that wasn't 100% juice, water, or milk has always been taxed at 6.25% so saying the tax just went into effect today is rather confusing. please note I'm only referring to beverages, not candy. Also, shampoo was always taxed as general merchandise at 6.25% unless it was an antidandruff shampoo (because it had "medical" applications). The only thing I can think of is that the local municipality was collecting the money until now. Either way, instead of taxing the little guy it would be much more lucrative to tax big companies for outsourcing employees to foreign countries in lieu of hiring americans. But unfortunately as long as these companies are in bed with our government, that will never happen, they will just keep gouging the citizens. I know many people who have lost their jobs to someone in india, and now in addition to that, theyre paying more taxes! We're all being bent over, folks.
Just one more reason for people to start home-brewing beer and wine.
W.T.F. Rise up against the government
Isn't all this infrastructure cost payed by the obamacommy stimulus bill (that is also peoples money)? Apparently now we need more money to pay off the Chicago political machine.
"Rise up?" We can't even get a firearms preemption bill past in Springfield. The Dems control everything because of their felon base of voting in ChiTown. Rep. Danny Davis said on WBEZ a couple of years back we had 600,000 felons. If we had a law like in Florida we could knock a significant voting part of the Dems and get some decent legislation through.
All of those people who were in favor of Illinois raising the cigarette tax and making Illinois a non smoking state,(i.e. the non smokers) can now eat their words. The Gov. is finally getting in your pocket too.
If you look into this, you realize the actual increase is much more than they're stating for homeowners, because you now have NO exemption for property taxes, only a $ 350 credit. So that's a couple extra thousand dollars of taxable revenue. Also, they are planning to shift some of the burden back to cities who will be forced to raise their taxes too. Get the picture here? Oh, and on top of this food and energy will be sky high by July.
This madness will never end until the people truly stand up for what is right and stop putting these idiots in office
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