The illogic of opposing a graduated income tax

The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago’s opposition to a progressive tax is essentially a distaste for democracy.

SHARE The illogic of opposing a graduated income tax
Chicago must do more to provide affordable housing that is accessible, a disability rights advocate writes.

Chicago must do more to provide affordable housing that is accessible, a disability rights advocate writes.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

A recent article reported on opposition by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago to the Fair Tax Amendment. Reading the full document, I was surprised to see that the committee is worried about the drastic reduction in social services in Illinois, admits the state needs to raise much more money than the $3 billion the new tax formula would provide and concedes that it is probably necessary to tax high retirement incomes.

Despite all this, they oppose the Fair Tax based on the convoluted logic that Illinois needs to first fix several fiscal issues. They claim they “could” support a progressive tax if a comprehensive plan was included with the change in the tax system.

In other words, let’s keep the schools and social services underfunded, until such time in the future when they are satisfied with our fiscal system. In the meantime, these millionaires and billionaires will keep their lower tax rates.

Or, if a tax hike is needed because of the current desperate economic situation, the hike will hit everyone equally — poor, middle class and wealthy alike.

Keep in mind that passing a constitutional amendment is a long and complicated process. If this initiative fails now, it will be very difficult to revive it in some hypothetical future when the Civic Committee is satisfied with the state’s fiscal situation.

I would give them the benefit of the doubt of just having blundered into a logical fallacy, except that this a group of the wealthiest people in Illinois. Indeed, most of these fellows are probably in the highest tax bracket and will pay only 7.99% on anything above the $750,000 threshold.

Taking into account the approximate 3% savings they have accrued from Trump’s federal tax reduction, if they were genuinely worried about the fiscal situation of the state, they would offer to pay a 10.99% marginal rate or perhaps a one-time wealth tax to refill the state’s coffers.

It is particularly distressing, as a professor at the University of Chicago, to discover that several of the members of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees are members of this committee.

These very wealthy people are happy to give away millions to the institutions of their choice but balk at having a democratically elected government that represents the people make these decisions. Their opposition to a progressive tax is essentially a distaste for democracy.

Yali Amit, Logan Square

SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be 350 words or less.

Fix Chicago’s problems with affordable, accessible housing

Thanks to Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the U.S. General Accounting Office has agreed to conduct a thorough review of compliance in major cities with federal laws requiring accessibility to people with disabilities in their affordable housing programs. Chicago and St. Louis will be included in the study.

The request was inspired by the work of the late civil rights leader Marca Bristo, who saw, over her 40-year fight for accessible housing, that the city of Chicago has for decades failed to meet federal rules under the Federal Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A 2017 study by the University of Chicago found the distribution of affordable and accessible units in Chicago was uneven and limited, resulting in higher prices and fewer housing choice for persons with disabilities.

Chicago continues to resist the transparency required to determine compliance and has been unwilling or unable to provide key information. We expect that information would be readily available had the city made good-faith efforts to comply with federal housing laws for the past 30 years.

We urge Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the city of Chicago to finally take these problems seriously, correct the failures and help us secure the civil rights we have long been guaranteed.

Noah Ohashi, Chicago ADAPT co-coordinator 

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”