Cook County wants to tax bed-and-breakfasts out of business

Chicago's Grant Park

Big city Democrats across America punish entrepreneurship. The latest example? In Cook County--where Chicago is--the assessor, who is also chairman of the Cook County Democratic Organization, in other words, The Machine, wants to drive the county's few bed-and-breakfasts out of business.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Chicago bed-and-breakfast owner Kapra Fleming was baffled and shocked when she heard the news: Her taxes and costs to do business could double or even triple before the year's end.

That was in April, when she first learned that the Cook County assessor planned to reclassify all bed-and-breakfasts from residential to commercial property — potentially adding tens of thousands of dollars to their tax bills.

"The tax is so huge, I was concerned I had to go out of business," said Fleming, owner of the House of Two Urns in Wicker Park. "I could not afford an additional $3,000 to $4,000 a month."

Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios initially said the change would take effect last January. But after bed-and-breakfast owners complained that they were never notified of the reclassification — learning about it only after some properties had been reassessed in February — Berrios announced that he would delay the change until next year.

Boss Berrios is a known practitioner of nepotism.

Such assaults on small business and the hiring of friends and relatives are just part of the bad goods that citizens get when misguided and yes, dumb voters select candidates only because they are Democrats.

One party rule always ends in misrule.

City folk: Wake up!