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News Release | Illinois PIRG | Budget

Facebook’s Tax Dodge Stands to Make Billions for Company and Zuckerberg

U.S. Senator Carl Levin isn’t necessarily the man you’d look to for the latest news about Facebook. However, today he broke some shocking news on the Senate floor about special tax favors that Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, will enjoy at great cost to the U.S. Treasury.

Budget Address: Close Corporate Tax Loopholes

Wednesday, February 22, 2012
By | Celeste Meiffren
Field Director

In his budget address today, Governor Pat Quinn called for closing corporate tax loopholes, saying ‘For too long, we’ve had a revenue code that looks like Swiss cheese, with plenty of loopholes for the powerful." With tough budget decisions facing the State, closing tax loopholes that serve no public purpose, is the right thing to do...

Report | Illinois PIRG Education Fund | Democracy

Auctioning Democracy

Super PACs are tools used by wealthy individuals and institutions to dominate the political process. 93% of the itemized funds raised by Super PACs from individuals came in contributions of at least $10,000, from just twenty-three out of every 10 million people in the U.S. population.

"PIRG Releases report on TIF in Chicago"

Thursday, February 2, 2012
By | Celeste Meiffren
Field Director

Our friends at Good Jobs First, the national leader in research on the impact of economic subsidies, blogged about our new report on tax increment financing (TIF) in Chicago...

$5 million tax refund

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
By | Celeste Meiffren
Field Director

On Monday, Bank of America returned more than $5 million in subsidies to the City of Chicago because it hadn't delivered on its goal of creating 2,700 jobs.

Report | Illinois PIRG Education Fund | Tax

Cleaning Up Tax Increment Financing

 

Every year, $500 million worth of property tax revenue collected in Chicago flows into funding pools shielded from public scrutiny and democratic control—the bank accounts of the city’s Tax-Increment Financing (TIF) districts.  That money—10 percent of Chicago’s annual property tax revenue—is intended to promote development in struggling areas of the city, but the fashion in which it has been handled in the past—without full transparency, democratic oversight, or accountability for the recipients of funds—has opened the door to misuse of public money.

 

News Release | Illinois PIRG | Tax

Progress Report: Promised Reforms to Protect Chicago Tax Dollars ‘Incomplete’

 

Yesterday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that he will be immediately implementing some of the reforms proposed by his TIF Reform Panel five months ago. Today, watchdog group Illinois PIRG released a report on the need to fix TIF and called for all of the Mayor’s recommendations to become law.

 

What could go wrong?

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
By | Celeste Meiffren
Field Director

Today, the Chicago City Council voted 41-5 to give Mayor Emanuel more authority to enter into contracts for goods, work and services with respect to the G8 and NATO summits this Spring.

Report | Illinois PIRG Education Fund | Budget

Representation Without Taxation

Marking the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case, this report takes a hard look at the lobbying activities of profitable Fortune 500 companies that exploit loopholes and distort the tax code to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.

News Release | Illinois PIRG | Budget

Thirty Fortune 500 Companies Paid More to Lobby Congress Than Taxes

With the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case approaching – which opened the floodgates to corporate spending on elections – Illinois PIRG and Citizens for Tax Justice reveal thirty corporations that spent more to lobby Congress than they did in taxes.

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PRIORITY ACTION

Some of the nation’s best-known companies—including GE, Google and Goldman Sachs—have avoided paying the taxes they owe, costing us $100 billion last year.

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