Chicagoans may soon be digging a little deeper into their pockets to cover the new cell phone tax.

What if Rockford decided to do that?

In an article by DNAInfo Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's 2018 Spending Tax "raises the city tax on cell phones and landlines by 28 percent — the second double-digit phone tax hike in three years."

Which means for residents that for "every cell phone registered to a Chicago address and every Chicago landline, the city will tack on a $5 per month charge — up from the current charge of $3.90 per month."

$5 doesn't seem like a whole lot but that's an extra $60 every year that could be used for something else more pertinent to your everyday lives.

If the City Council signs off on this in their next budget meeting scheduled November 8th, it will go into effect January 1st, 2018.

The revenue generated from this added tax, according to Rahm Emanuel's plan, is "to shore up the 8,000-member Laborers Pension Fund — freeing up other city funds to modernize Chicago's 911 and 311 systems 'for the mobile, smartphone era'."

The phone system according to Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said that the current system is 20 years old and "clearly past its time to be replaced." Plus the "new system will allow Chicagoans to text 911 for help — and to send photos and videos to give police officers and firefighters an immediate look at the situation."

Over all those are good intentions, but seriously taxing the people more, even is $5 bucks, just doesn't seem right or a good idea.

Let's just hope this doesn't come to Rockford. We already deal with extra tax. This city, or rather the residents, do not to pay even more for just living and existing here.

 

 

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