CRYSTAL LAKE – If that $35 a day parking fee discourages you from making a trip into Chicago, parking will cost $2.10 more in a month – yet another reason to avoid the traffic and the headaches.
A new parking space tax is set to go into effect on January 1, 2020 and State Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-Crystal Lake) says the tax will cost more than people think and the money from the parking tax will not be used to pay for roads.
“Parking is already expensive enough especially in the City of Chicago,” Skillicorn said. “In addition to having the third highest gas tax in the country, Illinois residents are now going to have pay more to park their vehicle. Parked or moving, Illinois is making it tougher for Illinois families to own and operate a vehicle.”
The General Assembly approved a Capital bill (SB 690) that included an increase in the state’s motor fuel tax and other tax hikes such as the parking space tax. Some of the tax increases are going to pay for roads and bridges while money from the parking space tax and other taxes are going to pay for building repairs and other vertical projects.
Under the new law, parking spots rented on a monthly or yearly basis will be taxed at 9 percent while a 6 percent tax would be applied to spots rented on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. The tax even applies to people who charge to park on their property during special events that bring in a lot of people for special events such as concerts and fairs.
“People have long used their property to make money by charging for parking during festivals, fairs, sporting events and concerts, but under this new law, even those parking spaces would be subject to the tax,” Skillicorn said. “The scope and the full cost of this tax goes well beyond what we were told when the bill was first introduced. This is a text-book example of government overreach. The parking tax, like the motor fuel tax, will hurt middle class families and it should be repealed.”
