Tag: cook county

Slurpees and the Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax

Me with my Slurpee.

By Sam Brunson

Today and tomorrow are 7-Eleven’s annual Bring Your Own Cup Day. In case you’re not familiar with it (or your Facebook feeds aren’t filled with bizarre containers of florescent sugar-ice), on #BYOCupDay, you can bring any container in your house to a 7-Eleven and, as long as it fits in the Slurpee machine, you can fill it up for $1.50.

After my wife and kids spent the day on the beach watching the Air and Water Show rehearsal, they were ready for some Slurpee. So, when I got out of work, we walked the three blocks to the nearest 7-Eleven. (Last year, we took berry-picking buckets; this year, we were much more modest and just brought cups my father-in-law bought when we took him to a Cubs game a couple years ago.)

When we got to the store, we were greeted by this sign: Continue reading “Slurpees and the Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax” →

Regressivity and Cook County Property Taxes

I was listening to “The Morning Shift” on WBEZ this morning, and they started talking about property tax. Now, property tax isn’t really my thing, but the story caught my ear for a couple reasons.

First, of course, I’m a homeowner in Chicago, so the recent property tax hike is salient enough that it’s worth some of my time. Second, as my wife pointed out to me, the assessment of property values has an aspect that seems tremendously regressive and, therefore, problematic. Continue reading “Regressivity and Cook County Property Taxes” →