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Corporate Taxes
Quick Hit
by Brandon Campbell
10:58am
Thu May 24

CME Shareholder Meeting Crashed By Community Activists (VIDEO)

Though NATO and its related protests have come and gone, hundreds of Chicago community activists continued to show public outrage through a series of their own protests Wednesday.

On the same day the Chicago Mercantile Exchange held its annual shareholders’ meeting, a group of 60 people from organizations like Arise Chicago, Jane Addams Senior Caucus, and the Lakeview Action Committee, claimed to have legitimately purchased shares from the CME and showed up for the conference.

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Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
8:55pm
Fri May 18

Nurses Hold Massive Peaceful Rally In Center Of Chicago (VIDEO)

Demonstrators at a National Nurses United rally at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago today said that they were nervous violence might overshadow the nurses’ message of economic equality in what was billed as the second biggest event in a week of NATO summit-related protests.

But the two-hour event was without much incident, despite a crowd that likely exceeded the 2,000 people the nurses union said would attend. Read more »

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
5:56pm
Fri May 18

Nurses Protest Focuses On ‘Robin Hood’ Tax (VIDEO)

At their massive downtown Chicago rally today, the National Nurses United union stuck with a script they developed prior to President Barack Obama relocating this weekend’s G8 economic summit from Chicago to Camp David – advocacy for developed nations to impose a tax on financial transactions. Read more »

PI Original
by Steven Ross Johnson
5:27pm
Mon May 14

Business Butts Heads With Cullerton On Corporate State Income Tax Transparency Bill

A bill currently making its way through the Illinois Senate that would require public-held companies to report how much they pay in state income taxes is being lauded by a local community group as being a first step toward creating a more equitable tax structure, while business leaders have decried the measure, alleging it could further perpetuate the state’s reputation of being a bad place to do business.

Quick Hit
by Brandon Campbell
4:46pm
Thu Apr 26

Chicagoans Join GE Protest in Detroit

A group of about 150 Chicagoans belonging to 15 community and labor organizations drove to Detroit Tuesday evening to join in a protest today of General Electric’s tax breaks at the company’s GM Renaissance Center during the company's annual meeting.

Before boarding one of three buses waiting outside of Teamster City Elizabeth Parisian, policy analyst for Stand up! Chicago, said it was G.E.’s firing of thousands of employees coupled with the billions of dollars in tax breaks the company received over the past several years that prompted her to take the trip.

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Quick Hit
by Brandon Campbell
12:13pm
Mon Apr 16

The High Cost Of Corporate Tax Breaks On Illinois Small Businesses

Mike Nikodem and his wife Jo Anne own a bakery in Naperville and they said they paid more in taxes last year than some of Illinois’ largest corporations. The Nikodems recently joined the Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a local watchdog organization, in pushing for tax reform legislation that would
close corporate tax loopholes.

The group released a report that showed Illinois small business owners, like the Nikodems, would be on the hook for an additional $2,556 in taxes to make up for about $60 billion lost to foreign tax havens.

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Quick Hit
by Aricka Flowers
5:30pm
Thu Feb 2

Number Of The Week: 6,230

That's the number of jobs lost each time the state reduces general fund spending by just 1 percent, according to a new report by Make Wall Street Pay Illinois and the Alliance for a Just Society.

The four-page report, The Cost of Cuts in Illinois: Budget Cuts Hurt Families, Communities, and the Economy (PDF), found that thousands of lost jobs can be associated with cuts in state spending, which is only exacerbated by corporate tax breaks, like the recent ones given to the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the CME Group.

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Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
3:35pm
Tue Jan 31

Turning Point On Corporate Tax Breaks?

CME Group logoThe city announced that CME Group, Inc. financial exchange elected to turn down $15 million in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, money.

The announcement came the same day that the Mayor’s office announced TIF reform and two other companies – CNA Group and Bank of America – also returned TIF money. Moreover, CME Group's announcement comes after Stand Up! Chicago delivered a golden toilet to the company’s downtown headquarters last week, partly in protest of their tax incentives.

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