Ald. Will Burns (4th) wants all publicly-traded corporations seeking subsidies or contracts from the city of Chicago to publicly disclose the amount they pay in Illinois income taxes as well as any tax breaks they receive.
Burns
introduced the Chicago Corporate Responsibility and Tax Disclosure Act
at Wednesday's city council meeting. Under the proposed measure, big
corporations asking for city actions, subsidies and contracts would also
have to report net and taxable income.
Alds. Pat Dowell (3rd),
Leslie Hairston (5th), Roderick Sawyer (6th), Natashia Holmes (7th),
Toni Foulkes (15th), Ricardo Munoz (22nd), Deb Mell (33rd), Michele
Smith (43rd), James Cappleman (46th), Ameya Pawar (47th), Harry Osterman
(48th) and Joe Moore (49th) have signed on as co-sponsors to the measure thus far.
Leaders with the Fair Economy Illinois coalition are also in support of
the proposed ordinance, which has been sent to the Finance Committee.
"We are increasingly turning
into a society, which in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. takes
necessities away from the many and gives luxuries to the few," Fair
Economy Illinois leader Rev. Marlan Branch of St. James AME Church said
before Wednesday's council meeting. "The city of Chicago spends millions
of dollars each year subsidizing and contracting with big corporations.
Those corporations have a particular responsibility to support the
common good, which should include publicly disclosing the corporate
income tax they pay to the state of Illinois."
Chicagoans protested at Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office Thursday morning for corporate tax transparency.
