Downtown pays fair share of taxes

In its Aug. 29 editorial titled “The price Chicago must pay for a past failure of courage,” the Sun- Times Editorial Board opined that Chicago’s downtown business community should incur increased taxes because it hasn’t paid its fair share.

At the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago, we believe these kinds of statements underscore a wide spread misconception that Chicago’s business community and its vibrant downtown are capable of shouldering a limitless tax burden without ever reaching a tipping point. This inaccurate portrayal couldn’t be further from the truth and is in itself a threat to Chicago’s economic future.

While the Sun- Times suggests “it’s someone else’s turn” to foot the bill, they failed to mention that businesses are already paying their fair share of the propertytax hike. In fact, businesses must pay higher rates due to a unique commercial building assessment rate that is 250 percent of the rate of assessment for residential property. That means that for every $ 100 of property value, single- family homes are assessed $ 10 and commercial buildings are assessed $ 25. After the 2015 increases, 190 of our member buildings paid over $ 906 million in property taxes ( an average of over $ 4.7 million per building), which are passed down to business tenants.

The Sun- Times also goes on to list the multitude of new and increased taxes including water, sewage, soda and bag taxes residents must pay— all of which businesses also must pay. Commercial office buildings, unlike one- to fourunit residential buildings, have been required to pay the entire cost of refuse collection for decades. Owners of one- to four- unit residential buildings have been only recently asked to pay $ 9, a fraction of the actual cost the city incurs to collect and dispose of trash.

Yes, our downtown is booming right now, which is fortunate as additional revenues help to alleviate the property- tax burden on residents. That’s why it’s so important to cultivate a thriving downtown. Our member buildings house nearly 13,000 downtown businesses supporting over 400,000 employees, while Chicago office building expenditures inject $ 4.6 billion into the economy.

Butwe can’t forget that business owners always have choices before they hit a tipping point: to increase salaries or eliminate staff, to expand offices or close their doors, to stay or move away. Each of these choices has a direct relationship on the livelihood of each and every Chicagoan and their ability to drive or drain the economy. The reality of pitting homeowners and businesses against each other won’t solve the problem. The vitality of our downtown impacts the fiscal stability of the entire city, andwe are all in this together.