Preckwinkle Drops Amusement-Tax Idea: Commissioner
County Won't Pursue Amusement Tax Hike
(CBS) -- Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has dropped the idea of a new amusement tax and is now looking at a new county hotel tax, a board colleague says.
WBBM's Mike Krauser reports.
There had been a lot of opposition to the amusement tax hike, which would have hit cable-television customers, bowlers, golfers and others involved with for-profit sports activities.
"Senior groups got together, and while their basic cable they can afford, they became very concerned that if you start taxing it, it will be too much. And their voices were heard," says Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-13th, who had opposed the plan.
Now, he says, Preckwinkle is suggesting a 1 percent hotel tax for rooms in the city and suburbs of Cook County. The city of Chicago already imposes a 4.5 percent hotel tax that generates more than $100 million annually.
Some commissioners are leery of burdening the convention industry with further taxes.
