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chicagotribune.com
Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed sales tax bottled up in fees, coffee, sweet tea, could leave sour taste
State, local governments pile on ‘nickel and dime’ fees

By Monique Garcia and Rick Pearson

Tribune reporters

March 22, 2009

Buried deep within the massive budget proposal Gov. Pat Quinn presented last week to lawmakers was a caffeinated jolt to the bottled tea and Frappuccino crowd.

Quinn wants to apply the state’s sales tax on soft drinks to the coffee and sweetened tea products in grocery stores, adding a quarter for the state treasury for every $5 six-pack of sweet green tea.

While his proposal for a 50 percent increase in the income tax got the headlines, the tea and coffee tax is among a pocketful of nickel-and-dime tax increases the governor is seeking in a comprehensive effort to overcome the state’s looming $11.5 billion budget deficit. He also favors higher fees for driver’s licenses, license plates, hunting and fishing licenses, cigarettes, tickets to the State Fair and even adding the state’s sales tax to some shampoo and personal hygiene products.

But the new Democratic governor, just more than seven weeks on the job, is not alone in nicking the Illinois taxpayer. From the highest-in-the-nation Chicago sales tax to a host of new and bigger fees being imposed by a variety of municipalities, the public is being increasingly tapped for dollars in purposely quiet, understated ways.

“It’s partly hidden taxes,” Dan McMillen, an economics professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said of the fee frenzy. “When you pay a property tax bill all at once, it’s a lot of money. When you pay income tax, it’s a lot of money. Fees you spread through the year and you don’t even know how much it adds up to.”

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www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-fees-taxes-up-bd22mar22,0,5628239.story