Cook County sales tax goes up today

It's a bittersweet time for Wayne Mikes of Mikes Bike Shop in Palatine.

Raging gas prices have recently meant an influx of customers to his shop at 155 N. Northwest Hwy., but now the other shoe is about to drop.

Today, Mikes has to start charging an additional 1 percent in sales tax on behalf of Cook County. That brings Palatine to a total of 10 percent between state, county and municipal sales taxes. Chicago gains the notorious title of highest sales tax of any major U.S. city at 10.25 percent.

Mikes is wary of what that will mean for him - just a stone's throw away from Lake County and its much cheaper sales tax.

"There's always going to be some kind of negative impact when prices go up," Mikes said.

The new tax, pushed through in February by Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, will bring in an additional $426 million a year, on top of an existing $3.2 billion budget.

Stroger recently visited Palatine in a public forum to explain why he felt the tax was necessary. In essence, ever-increasing health care and personnel costs dictated the increase if the county is to continue providing vital services, he said.

His office pointed out Monday in a news release that the new tax does not apply to cars, medicine or food.

Many critics counter that county government waste is to blame for the tax increase, or at a minimum that it is a foolhardy tax that will drive business elsewhere.

"(Today) Todd Stroger's stimulus package goes into effect," joked Cook County Commissioner Tim Schneider, a Bartlett Republican who voted against the tax. "It's going to stimulate everyone to shop everywhere but Cook County."

Some, Mikes among them, favor a secession of from Cook County, although the law as currently written makes that nearly impossible. A majority of voters in Cook County would have to endorse the concept.

"I would advocate that we join Lake County," said Mikes, who has owned his bike shop for 30 years.