Posted by
Rich from NW Indiana on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 2:47:50 AM
Well, when Chicago (and other Illinois) residents are in Northwest Indiana, they often buy their gas and smokes. If you don't know, many residents of Illinois buy their gas and smokes in Indiana to escape the high "sin" taxes on those items. The gas was 50 cents cheaper in Indiana today. Plus you can buy fireworks which cannot even be bought in Illinois.
They will most likely be able to add a new item to the shopping list shortly, Bottled Water. Yes, bottled water. After many years of well-intended folks trying to get the great unwashed to drink more water, bottled water is out with the elite. Alderman in Chicago are looking at taxing bottled water. 10- 25 cents a bottle. So if at the max of 25 cents a bottle a case would have a tax of $6. Read about it
here. $6 on top of an already overpriced case of water, I guess they figure since your willing to pay that much for water, why not add more to the price. On an ironic side note, Pepsi bottles its brand of bottled water in Munster, Indiana.
So it the "winner" of the stupid idea of the day award. It doesn't seem quite as dumb as the tax the pot thing in California, but it is still a bad idea. Raising taxes to fill a budget gap, instead of cutting some fat from it. Illinois politicians have no idea how much business they have driven into Indiana. Because folks are buying much more then the things noted above. There is a "power center" (a newish term to describe a shopping center) here is Highland that is by square foot one of the most profitable centers in the country. It was originally built to serve mostly Highland, Schererville, Dyer, Munster, and Griffith residents, but has attracted many Illinois shoppers as well. It doesn't really have any stores you couldn't also find in Illinois. But it does have,,,,or I should doesn't have something Illinois has, a lower sales tax.
They just don't think about what normal people do when you raise taxes (and companies too). And that is that normal people want to save a few bucks here and there. Crossing into Indiana is a easy thing to do. I know people on the north side of Chicago that do their main grocery shopping at the Meijer here in Highland. The Wal-Mart company is adding a second store in Hammond, not because Hammond needs a second store, but it will be built across the street from the southeast side of Chicago. Lower sales taxes for the customer and no dumb minimum Wal-Mart only wage law from the alderman of Chicago for the company. So everybody wins except for Illinois. I guess Illinois government folks just don't want to understand simple economics.