[jtown,man]

My class got the chance to have a Calumet City official come and speak with us. The FIRST thing she brought up in her presentation was that it was great that they were a "home rule" city, meaning they can do things other cities can't. Her only example? Having a sales tax that is 2% higher than the states.

Huh? Then she went on to talk about their number one goal as a city is to increase tax revenue and keep their retail sector up and going.

She doesn't realize Indiana is literally across the border from them. Residents can easily move or shop there and save tons. The city keeps raising its property taxes to keep the government's income increasing every year despite a population that decreases every year.

How does that make sense? Why is the city's revenue keep climbing while its population is going down? They keep increasing taxes, which then leads to more people leaving, which leads to them to keep raising taxes. Why do they need so much revenue? Because they are running the city as if they had the same population as 20 years ago, despite losing 25% of their population.

It all reeks of a scheme to keep the idiots in their jobs and to keep the machine running.


This is the issue in this area, it's not small. It's not laughable. It is serious and is killing the region. At least in areas with high property values and low property taxes you can cash out when you sell. Not here, you can buy a modest home and sell it for barely any more than you paid and sink enough money in taxes every year equivalent to paying rent in Dallas.

It's not sustainable. How is it that government revenue needs to be X amount higher her per person than in many other large cities? Do we REALLY get that much better services? Data would prove that false.

It's the same thing with the CPS. Their budget gets larger every year (even factoring in inflation) yet every year they lose students. Why don't people call them out on this BS?