CHICAGO (WBBM)
-- The state of Illinois faces a gaping budget hole, and
strapped taxpayers don't want to pay for it. Yet a
Washington think tank study shows that Illinois lets retailers
keep more money for collecting sales taxes than any other
state.
The non-profit research center Good Jobs First
said Illinois retailers kept $126 million dollars last year
because of the handling fee, known in state law as the
"retailer's discount."
The next closest state was
Texas, where retailers kept $90 million. Twenty-four
states, including California, allow no such fee.
The
executive director of the Springfield-based Center for Tax and
Budget Accountability, Ralph Martire (mahr-TEER'-ee), said
those who keep most of it hardly need it.
"A few
businesses and primarily some very large retailers are able to
benefit greatly while low and middle income taxpayers, 60
percent of our taxpayers, continue to suffer," he
said.
Good Jobs First has made its name focusing on the
business practices of Wal-Mart.
Martire will urge
lawmakers to end the practice, and said he intends to speak
with several lawmakers, including State Rep. David Miller
(D-Dolton) and State Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago), who could
be prospective sponsors.
The last time a similar bill
was introduced, it died in committee on a deadlocked 4-4
vote.
Illinois Retail Merchants Association President
David Vite promised a pitched battle over any such legislation
that is introduced. He said it is a lifeline to many
smaller retailers and would come at the worst possible time
for many of the group's members.
"Retail storefronts
(for lease) in the city of Chicago are at a 10-year high,"
Vite said. "It suggests that retailers aren't doing very
well."
Martire said that if legislation ended the fee,
the money could be put toward schools, improved community
services or possibly even an expansion of Illinois' earned
income tax credit.
Vite said the fee should not be
erased because retailers large and small use it to help offset
the processing fees credit card issuers charge
businesses.
"We think that would be a punishment for
retailers," he said.
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