July 19, 2013
As described last week in the Civic Federation’s blog, the Chicago City Council recently approved an ordinance changing the City’s tiered parking tax rates to percentage-based rates of 18% on weekends and 20% on weekdays effective July 1, 2013. Yesterday, the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved similar changes to their parking tax ordinance. Effective September 1, 2013, the County’s parking tax will change from a tiered rate system to percentage-based rates of 6% for periods of 24 hours or less and 9% for weekly or monthly periods.
There is no tax imposed on parking fees that are $2.00 or less within a 24-hour period, $10.00 or less for a weekly period or $40.00 or less for a monthly period in municipalities with more than 250,000 residents. In municipalities with fewer than 250,000 residents, the tax will not apply to parking charges that are $3.00 or less for a 24-hour period, $15.00 or less for a weekly period and $60.00 or less for a monthly period. The County reports that the tax changes will have a revenue-neutral effect on the budget and the projected parking tax revenue for FY2013 will remain at $42.6 million.
Currently, the County’s parking tax operates on a tiered structure ranging from $0.00 to $1.00 for 24 hours or less, $0.00 to $5.00 for a weekly period and $0.00 to $20.00 for a monthly period for municipalities with populations greater than 250,000. For municipalities with a population less than 250,000, the current parking tax rates range from $0.00 to $1.00 for a period of 24 hours or less, $0.00 to $5.00 for a weekly period and $0.00 to $20.00 for a monthly period.
The chart below shows a comparison of the County’s current tiered parking tax rates and the approved percentage-based parking tax rates.
The chart below shows the composite parking tax rates for Cook County and the City of Chicago before the effect of the newly approved changes.
The chart below shows the newly approved parking tax rates for Cook County and the City of Chicago and their new composite tax rates.
