This blog is maintained for the sole purpose of allowing the people of Peru and those interested in the cities of the Illinois Valley to express their views.
“It doesn’t take a majority to win, just a tireless minority that will keep starting brush fires in the mind and hearts of their fellow men.” Samuel Adams
This is a huge loss for Peru and the local area. I do not know the present number of employees but do know that at one time it was over 300 of which many were single mothers. This is a payroll which they and the community cannot stand to lose. Being a victim of closings and plant shut downs several times I would utilize dislocated workers and the state employment service. Also if you can afford to and the opportunity arises do not be afraid to move. Do your networking and never forget to mention that you need a job.
Like the other comment. 200 people who spend 50 dollars a week in our business retail district, that's $40 thousand a month. These people will need all sorts of gov. assistants, housing, food, etc.. these are people's lives who were willing to work. Moving sounds like a good choice to a more populated area. And the city is spending money like there is no tomorrow. You watch how many landlords put their property in HUD assistance. This is sickening.
I was told by someone who attended the last council meeting, that the mayor made a comment that it is possible that Peru might possibly see a reduction in state money sent to us in the amount of $500,000 and said that the Financial Officer needs to look at our budget once more.
And to the comment about the number of HUD increasing for those needing low rent assistance. The city already has many homes with For Rent signs in front of them and they remain vacant.
Rent is outrageous in the illinois valley for a large percent of the income level. The grant money for the business beautification with a 50/50 match should have never been given to businesses either. We taxpayers are and did pay for this. Why should we the taxpayers pay for a businesses storefronts? I say this being a business owner. Our schools will be bombarded with more free or reduced meals for students with this closing of office max.
Peru has six separate entities working for promotion of the city. One being a lobbyist, another a internet service, the third being a unpaid volunteer with a expense account and the fourth a long term standard bearer by the identity of Illinois Valley Area Chamber of Commerce. The fifth who is possibly least known for having the responsibility of city promotion but is important as any of the first four is Mayor Harl. In parallel with Mayor Harl is the completely unacknowledged as well as the most unrecognized - the citizenship of Peru. Each of these six should be active in the creation of employment of Peru, but which of these six are active in the responsibilities of maintaining the occupations already here? Who has been assigned this responsibility and what have they been doing to accomplish this goal. Who visits the present employers to make sure they want to keep Peru as a long term home rather than a landing zone until incentives such as a TIF or Enterprise Zone exists. Recently much time has been spent in attracting the sand industry and a state of the art movie theater. The amount of money to be spent in preparation and infrastructure for each is only to be determined when they stop asking and Peru stops spending in their direction which most likely will never come. A percentage of employees and a few citizens of Peru have forecast the touchy position of Office Max remaining in Peru at least for the last 6 to 8 months. Red flags have been sent numerous times that the possibility of this employers movement of location existed of over 200 good paying jobs which were much needed by a certain segment of the population of the locality. A basic question has never been answered by anyone directly responsible for maintaining the local jobs Peru already has. Who has been appointed by the city to perform this important responsibility and what have you actively done and what are you actively going to do? Recent forecasts by Mayor Harl, Robert Vickery and Peru City Council for 2015, in the 2d month of 2015 have been stepped on by the 800 pound gorilla and makes one doubtful that they can do what they should have done in 2014. Time after time there have been comments sent into the blog warning city officials that it is necessary to continuously build for the future but it is also necessary not to forget what you already have!
Evidence of the green and white campaign has started in Peru. The city logo does not appear nor does the any mention of the no competitive multi million dollar long term contract.
I believe we have known this was coming since the merger. It is sad. This is the type of employer that is in the background and unnoticed until they shut down. I bet very few people outside of the business knew that this call center existed.
It's been said time and time again by Alderman Rodney Perez the cirty needs a plan. Strategic Plan. The mayor, Waldorf and Lukosus plan has failed and continues to do so. Rodney brought in a professional planning advisor to present the city with the advantages of having a plan. Of course the good ole boys opposed any planning and decided to do it their own way. The reason rental properties is so high is caused by property taxes. Many years ago you could pay off your house and live happily ever after through retirement. Just wait, it will get worse and your social security or any other source of retirement savings will not be able to afford the property tax alone. We will continue hearing -We have no other choice but to raise property taxes!! My answer will always be- Sure you do but you needed to start yesterday by spending as if there is a gold mine sitting at the cities electric plant that will be flowing down the river sinking some day.
This decision for re-location of Office Max has been going on for over a year. The State of Illinois has been in the discussions along with local officials including State reps. This is a corporate decision and involves many factors that your local government has no control over. Its sad and impacts the entire community. The center has the infrastructure to entice any other similar business to locate. Wall Street has more to blame than the local city. Buyouts, stock prices rule. If you city offered no tax zones, no sales tax and State offered no payroll tax, no corporate tax that wouldn't make a difference with the decision to move. Most call centers are run in foreign lands and you can tell with the cold calls we receive on a daily basis. Will customer service matter? Has it mattered to other companies without competition? Comcast, Health care, etc. What we have is Office Max, Office Depot, Staples combining services and locating in States without the tax structure and labor laws we have.
These where not digging machine jobs and they really didn't produce any sales tax - so they are of no use to Peru. Maybe our Economic Director can turn the building into an outlet mall.
8:28 Hit the internet and call up somebody from some college and bring him in to tell you what the city needs. Is that called professional planning? There was a infrastructure committee for the local city and the task was to plan the projects for the future that was the appropriate way to plan. Rodney's call made no sense. The Mayor's plan made sense. The committee work never got off the ground floor. Was it the committee or the individuals or the work. The city council committee is doing the work of planning and it looks like Peru has many projects. Must be working.
9:18, I agree 150%. It is high time we did away with so-called this free market system. It would be so much better if all business was run by the government and we did not have to worry about stock prices and the evil Wall Street financiers.
9:42 Your tax dollars are paying for the free lunch program. That may be the one program that everybody agrees with. Downtown areas are for the most part owned by small family businesses and its in the best interest of a local city to keep the downtown business area vibrant.
9:46 AM, Not sure where you get your info but here are the facts: The city has no long-term plan for community development. No long-term plan for economic development. No long-term plan for infrastructure improvement. Rodney tried to initiate the focus on planning and Harl and the others ignored him because of their petty personal hatred of the Mr. Perez. Harl never had a plan for infrastructure until the Infrastructure Committee created the focus on the need to create a long-term plan but Waldorf and Lukosus were so threatened by the professionals on the Infrastructure Committee that they boycotted the committee meetings until the members decided to shut it down for lack of support form the Mayor and aldermen.
9:44 You are wrong. That business does produce sales tax and is important to the economy in the area. The building provides real-estate taxes.
8:28 The area has a so-called home exemption that freezes property taxes. It has a age requirement and income levels. that allows those retirees to limit the property tax increase, the drawback is that the rest pick up the increase.
Peru in the past has been sensitive to property tax increases. As those old hats leave office the next batch won't hold those property taxes as sacred cows and increase those taxes as needed.
@9:46 not sure where you're getting your information from. I was at that meeting when Rodney Brought that strategic planner in. He was not from a college he was a professional planner. His presentation to the council was very good and something the city should've done a long time ago.
10:28 - sales tax is collected for the buyer's location, not the sales person's location. So, unless they sell something to a business in Peru Illinois, no local sales tax is collected. There is also no product at this location. Product is shipped from one of the distribution centers.
The homestead exemption does not freeze taxes. If freezes the assessed value of the property. Taxes continue to rise - but not as much as they would due to increases in value.
The property tax issue is played by local politicians to scare people that don't look at the complete tax picture. For most people, higher property taxes are more beneficial than higher income and sales taxes.
Now - the point of my post was that our local Mayor and Council do not see the benefit of having "office jobs" or even industrial jobs in the area. They only consider retail and public works construction. This shows that our Mayor and Council only care about generating revenue for he city to spend. They don't give a hoot about the employment of the citizens. This will change as the population decreases. But then it will be to late.
Sales tax is collected at the Peru site. The sand transportation business is a recent example that shows Peru is interested in jobs. The new proposed cinema creates jobs.
Your post about property taxes is ignorant to those who pay the property tax. You can't control a property tax, and income tax is controlled by your wages. If you don't have a job your property taxes still need to be paid.
Point of sales is how taxes are collected, not the warehouse!
Your city has nothing to encourage the call center to stay. It's a big business and a major company. What can you do to have them stay in Peru, Ottawa, Naperville? Free water? It's a State deal and maybe the those making the decision can get a workforce that will work for $2.50 a hour and the corporate crew can live in warm weather without paying state income taxes?
You make think your local politicians can make the sea part. Honestly, they have very little to offer.
10:42 Now, why would Rodney bring someone to a meeting without the request of the Mayor? Can anybody bring in something to sell to the city at the meetings? I have a uncle Buck and he has a idea to have all city vehicles run on cow manure, should I bring Uncle Buck to the next meeting?
This has been talked about for the last 6 years. I can't believe they did not close in 2010. Glad they stayed open for 5 more years. This is not a surprise, especially if you pay any attention to our economic area.
1:31 PM, sales tax is not collected at the point of sale. The rules are the same for Internet sales and catalog sales: You have to charge and collect sales tax when you deliver the product to a state in which you have a "physical presence”. That is what the “Amazon Law” is all about. The customer only pays one sales tax – and that is to his local jurisdiction.
I pay property tax and my logic is sound. The real estate tax is deductible when itemizing. Since Illinois also charges and income tax, that is also deductible from the Federal income tax. In order to deduct sales tax, you must give up the deduction for state income tax. This only makes sense if you have a large purchase such as an automobile. Therefore – from an overall tax perspective, if I have the choice between a higher real estate tax or a higher sales tax, I will take the higher real estate tax. The reason is that it will result in fewer of my dollars being sent to the government. You argued that: “you can't control a property tax, and income tax is controlled by your wages. If you don't have a job your property taxes still need to be paid.” This argument makes no sense. You always have the option of selling your property to satisfy the obligation. The idea of keeping your wages low to keep your income tax low is not logical unless of course you mean to keep it low through loopholes and exemptions. If you have several children you should also desire a lower sales tax since you are actually spending more than a single person. The real estate deduction will also result in more bang from your refundable tax credits which are not afforded to most single people. This is how some people end up with a tax refund greater than the amount of tax that was withheld from their earnings throughout the year.
There is nothing worse than a pretend economist or a pretend financial planner. Point of sales is where the item is sold, not where it is made or bought. The municipality than has the call center makes the sales tax, that is how the law is written. The customer pays one sales tax and that goes into the coffers of the location of the call center. Peru and other towns that have these call centers lose the sales tax.
Your argument that you can control property taxes by not buying property? Yes, we can live in cardboard boxes and hope the government won't tax. And yes, your real-estate taxes are deductible if you have enough tax exemptions. Most of us can't come up with those totals, unless you own a lot of property. Your original argument was that you feel that paying higher property taxes instead of paying income tax is the way to go. Are you kidding? Taxes in most towns in the Illinois Valley area have low property taxes and sales taxes may be a few cents higher or lower depending on where you shop. If you have several children than that's your choice and don't give me your sad song about paying higher real-estate taxes to educate, feed, recreate, and police your litter of kids. Most of all don't charge me to take care of your crew by paying higher real-estate taxes. For many of us on homestead exemptions don't raise our property taxes to take care of your kids.
1:45 What makes you think Harl never knew about the Planner going to that meeting? Maybe you're an insider and know something we don't? I was the one who posted above and was at that meeting as I said earlier. It was on the agenda that's why I attended because I wanted to see the presentation. I would think if you wanted to take your uncle buck to a meeting for a presentation all you'd have to do is ask. After all you are on the council or close tie to- correct?
"The municipality than has the call center makes the sales tax, that is how the law is written." That is not how the law is written. When you buy an item on the internet or by calling a cataloger - you pay Illinois sales tax IF the business you are calling has a presence in Illinois. If they don't, then you pay no sales tax. So - Somebody from Atlanta calling that particular call center and making a purchase will pay Georgia Sales Tax.
"Your argument that you can control property taxes by not buying property?" - I did not say that.
"And yes, your real-estate taxes are deductible if you have enough tax exemptions. Most of us can't come up with those totals." Maybe you better look into this - because almost everyone that owns a house can itemize. Unless you have a half dozen kid or so. Then you don't pay any tax anyway.
I'm sorry - I stand by my original statement. For most people, IF YOU HAVE THE CHOICE between higher real estate taxes or higher sales tax - the higher real estate tax is the way to go. But, don't get your undies in a bundle because around here, they just raise them both.
There is a policy in England to add tax multipliers to houses that have unused bedrooms. The logic is to add an incentive for retired people to sell larger houses and move into small houses or retirement apartments. This applies to everyone except traditional royal estates.
Anyone that believes that a s huge series of comments were not posted on this blog way over a year ago do not read the blog. Warning after warning was posted that Peru's Office Max was going to shut down in the near future. The suggestion was made for city officials to visit Peru's Office Max to see if there was anything the city could do to possibly save it from closing. Everything that has happened in Peru has been behind shut doors in closed sessions so that only a few know what attempts, if any, were made. As a result of Peru having more closed sessions than meetings open to the public most of the previously concerned citizens are seperating themseves from working directly or indirectly with the existing government. Rapidly returning to Office Max there were definite tell tale signs and red flags flying for at least the last two years that the call center was leaving if nothing was done. Possibly now Mayor Harl will become more interested in a city manager and rid his administration of the Economic Director uness he is interested in another auto supply house or a donut and cupcake business in the far north end of Peru. Don't you ask why, why is LaSalle with so little becoming so successful with Don A. and Peru with such potential is becoming so unsuccessful with a person who has to have it handed to him before he can screw it up. Last year it was Unitite, this year it is Office Max plus whatever in the next 10 months. Peru has spent a huge fortune on motel demolition what industrial demolition does the city fathers want to pay for next with our money. or are they going to settle for 1 million to CarMike for minimum pay occupations?
6:08 it is well documented the place was going to close. This was a national corporate decision and local government officials could not have stopped it. You have NO idea how a business works. I'm so sick and tired of the constant hatred and negative comments from ignorant people. I used to come here to see if there was any interesting discussion but that is just completely gone.
ANON 6:19 Apparently you have no acquaintance with the little mouse that roared. All agree that Peru City Officials have never or do not own the keys to the doors of Reliable, Office Depot, Office Max, or Staples but they do own the employees of the Peru division to make a effort at representation. Isn't it amazing that someone can identify that a person has no idea how business works when they have no means of identifying that person. We will never know if local government officials could have stopped the move because we do know that they never tired. Remember it is the squeaky wheel that gets greased.
Full circle.... My point is that the Call Center does not produce as much revenue for the city as a retail store dose. Therefore, the Peru City Council and Mayor could not care less if this business exists. This call center dese not give them revenue. Everything Peru does regarding economic development is to produce more revenue for the City - not produce jobs for the people. Since real estate taxes are held low for political reasons, Peru sells electricity and promotes retail.
Anon 8 :03 AM The start of the revenue chain is the call center. If X number of people do not receive a paycheck from the call center they will not have revenue for the retail store until a replacement occupation is acquired.
5:25; I think somebody on the council said it best when they where talking about the sand processing and shipping facility. The question was asked what good would the facility be for Peru. The answer was - and I'm quoting - "One word, Tipping Fees."
ha ha - that shows you how the Peru council thinks. They don't care about jobs, they only care about more revenue to spend. And they can't even count to boot.
The move is prompted by the Staples buyout and to consolidate profits. Peru has no voice in this. The State of Illinois has no voice in this.
Please be accurate on the posts. It is very unfortunate that the company is leaving. Don't blame Peru, Ottawa or Naperville. The company is publically traded. Blame Wall Street.
"Peru does receive sales tax from the call center."
That is not entirely true. Illinois receives sales tax for sales that are shipped to customers in Illinois. I don't know how many times this needs to be explained. When a business ships products to the end customer in another state - the state they are shipping to collects the sales tax. The only exception is if the business that is shipping the product does not have a physical presence in the customer's state. In that case, the customer is responsible for paying the appropriate tax to their state. Period! This is covered by the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause and Federal Law. Step back and think about this. When you buy something on-line or on the telephone - Do you pay sales tax to any other state besides Illinois? The answer is no! You pay Illinois tax because you are in Illinois.
"The move is prompted by the Staples buyout and to consolidate profits. Peru has no voice in this. The State of Illinois has no voice in this."
Nobody is arguing that. That is how things work. The better term would be to reduce costs.
"Blame Wall Street" That comment is unnecessary. The market is the market. Do you complain about "Wall Street" when your retirement account makes money? The point of any merger is to leverage the best of both companies and eliminate the redundancies and increase profits. That is a GOOD THING! We need more of that!
Anon 8:58 AM Good job you have found a traditional band-aid to cover up the lack of city leadership in the leaving of Office Max from Peru. How often has representation of Peru visited the local call center to inquire if the city could do anything to help them? To know that you are wanted and appreciated counts in big ways. Your answer is nothing more than a cover up for the Peru government and a popular excuse of lets blame big business.
Has Staples been contacted to inquire if they would have any use of their soon to be empty building or if they have any contact of another corporation that would? All appearances indicate that Peru has lost a major employer by sitting on their asses when when they wake up and do something positive to recover? What is their long range and short range plan?
"Where XXX has a business "presence,” we are required to collect sales tax. As obligated, Staples charges sales tax on orders for taxable items in accordance with state and local tax laws."
"XXX charges sales tax on orders for taxable items in accordance with applicable state and local tax laws. The amount of sales tax charged depends on several factors, including the item purchased, the destination of the order and, where applicable, the location from which your order is shipped."
Products generally ship from the closest fulfillment center. Nothing ships from Peru.
The City of Peru's long and short range plan is to continue to spend sales tax revenue without any planning. They also plan to give money to developers to create more retail and entertainment facilities in an attempt to increase sales tax revenue so they can continue spending without a plan.
The decision was made to close the Peru Center back when the merger between Office Max and Office Depot took place. It is not the first time they have closed a call center. Office Depot had no customer service in the US, everything was offshore in the Philippines or India, there was never a plan to keep customer service in the US. There is nothing the cities of Peru or Ottawa could have done to save these centers. Office Max corporate asked Gov. Quinn for more than $30 million in tax breaks to keep the HQ in Naperville, he turned them down and it moved to the Office Depot HQ in Boca Raton, FL.
Call Center jobs are actually returning to the US at a rapidly increasing rate. According to the National Association of Call Centers..."After years of sending call center jobs to India, the Philippines, Mexico and other countries, companies are bringing them back to the U.S. An estimated 5 million Americans are employed in call centers. The trend is driven by changes in technology, rising overseas labor costs and customers demanding better service."
I would guess the company is shifting the call centers to Florida with the company HQ.
Some of the reasons that I would consider moving a facility like this include Illinois' high cost Workman's Comp., Unemployment Comp., and Telecommunications taxes. LaSalle County also has a relatively high cost for Health Insurance. This is due to the high rate of smoking and the greater than average preponderance of problem drinking.
I'm sure there are other reasons to move but I think those costs alone would justify any company that is capable of it to leave. I don't think these people where organized under the CWA, but RTW laws could play a role also.
The sales tax question is very easy. Peru has received a great deal of sales tax from the call centers. The sale is made the State collects the tax and the city receives the portion from the state.
Sales tax is not collected from the shipping point and sales tax is not collected from the corporate office. It is AND has been from the point of the sale. Peru call center fields a order, Peru gets the sales tax, and Illinois gets the sales tax. The location of the order is charged shipping in addition to the sales tax. 10:02 and 10:29 Call centers produce a great deal of sales tax. This is a big lose for those cities, employees and communities.
Yes, your right 10:02 IF YOU OWN STOCK, you may benefit. Your Staples stock may go from $17.00 a share to $18.56 a share. Otherwise most of us lose.
Thank you 10:51 AM for a brief history of Office Depot in Peru a history which I have since Reliable to Office Depot and many others join me in. I for one am not interested in the dreams of a loser but am very interested in those of a winner. Before Peru is a landscape of empty buildings without jobs there had best be plans made to occupy them so people have money to spend to have to pay sales tax. Hopes, promises and excuses don't put food on the table and the people of this area deserve better. Last week the need of a task force to study the need of a city administrator was proven not to presently exist but the need of a city economic director was proven highly essential. This is only one of the positions needed but at this time it is the most important and to fill it with excuses of being a unpaid volunteer have proven it worthless unless another Jack Hollerich comes out of the sky. he had vision.
10:43 What is this plan your are talking about? Is there such a thing as planning for developers that you are not aware of that may be interested in your community?
Spending plans are called budgets. All cities have budgets. Is it that vactor truck that has got your dander up? That was in the Peru planning since the flood and should of been in prior to the flood. Most of us in North Peru like that investment. The newspaper had a story about all of the infrastructure projects in Peru in the next year. Is that not planning?
"Peru has received a great deal of sales tax from the call centers. The sale is made the State collects the tax and the city receives the portion from the state. Sales tax is not collected from the shipping point and sales tax is not collected from the corporate office."
This is 100% WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! Here it is - Directly from the Illinois Department of Revenue web page:
Sales — The following list contains some of the most common examples of transactions that are exempt from tax. (See the Illinois Administrative Code, Section 130.120 and Publication 104, Common Sales Tax Exemptions for a comprehensive list.)
•Sales to out-of-state buyers
I removed all the other exemptions.
The only time they charge Illinois Sales Tax is when an item is sold to a customer in Illinois. The call center takes orders from all over the country. The sales tax is collected for every state!
11:41 - I'd be willing to bet that you own stock in the company and don't even know it. Do you have a non-Federal Government pension plan? Do you have a 401K? Do you have an IRA? Do you own any mutual funds at all?
Read and interpret all you want. The call centers have been sales tax producers that result in tens of thousands each year to Peru. Check with the City Clerk!
1:45, the Clerk can not tell you how much sales tax each business produces. That information is not passed on by the State of Illinois and is definitely not public knowledge. From time to time, there has been proposed legislation in Springfield to allow cities to know how much each business collects. But it has never gone anywhere. The reason is simple - if you have that information, you would be able to estimate the gross sales of a private business which should not be public knowledge.
Please read up on sales tax. The call center has no products, ships no products... it only takes orders. The orders are sent all over the country from distribution centers all over the country.
I think the fundamental misunderstanding is that somebody does not understand what a call center is. They are not there to service local customers. They are there to service customers from all over the country. Sometimes they are divided into regions, but I think this one is nation wide. This call center is also primarily B to B. Meaning that they do not sell to consumers. Often, sales tax is not applied to B to B sales. This is the case when the customer is going to sell the product to their own customer. The person that keeps saying that most of this call center's sales are not necessarily subject to Illinois and Illinois Home Rule sales tax is correct. Illinois does have a rule that if you purchase something in an Illinois city and have it delivered to a different Illinois city - you pay the rate at the point of sale, unless you have a location in both cities. Then you pay your own local home rule tax. That was the argument with the oil company in, I think, Mark. That company was charging off sales at the cheaper rate in Mark and the Chicago suburb got all PO'd. Again, I think it was Mark but I could be wrong. In summary, on interstate commerce, the buyers state dictates the sales tax. Even if the seller has no presence in the buyers state, most states have a law that says the buyer must file it. Please close this issue. The call center was not a source for huge amounts of sales tax.
Don't you know? Peru is Home Rule. That supersedes the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, the Illinois Constitution, State Law, and Federal Law. ha ha
I can't believe this argument is still going on. I go away for a few days and there is still one holdout that doesn't understand how sales tax is collected. When buying on-line, through a catalog, or on the telephone, the buyer pays sales tax for his own location.
11:37 - you are absolutely wrong. The only Illinois sales tax collected by the call center was from Illinois customers. That's it. You don't know what you are talking about and you refuse to learn. Please go to the Illinois Department of Revenue web page. Google "collecting sales tax for catalog sales." Do some effing research and stop trying to say that he call center was a huge source of sales tax for Peru. It was not. Never was and no call center ever will be. I will continue to call you a liar until you stop posting this lie! And also! the fuel sales in Mark had nothing to do with Peru. It was a Chicago Suburb routing calls through Mark. Sales tax for sale INSIDE ILLINOIS is at the point of sale. Sales tax for calls from OUTSIDE ILLINOIS go to the STATE THAT THE CUSTOMER IS IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes it is important for a area to receive taxes but people and their ability to obtain a occupation with a living wage are way more important? What do you propose will take the place of over 200 local jobs? 100 donuts shops or 70 auto supply stores?
And since the company that owns Advanced Auto owns one other local shop, it is suspected that that second "first" store will be closing fairly soon. I don't remember all the corporations decisions involved with this but this is fairly common knowledge.
10:35 - and the point of the entire argument is that the power's that be in Peru only look at the direct revenue that a business will give to the city. They don't care about indirect revenue provided by people working. And my point was that since this facility does not produce a huge amount of direct tax dollars - Peru's leadership really doesn't care about it. All you have to do is listen to a council meeting and you can hear it at every meeting. Give money to concerts because we get hotel motel taxes and sales tax. Give money to the baseball tournament because we get hotel motel taxes and stales tax. Give darn near a million dollars to some unknown developer because we can charge an entertainment tax.... you get the picture.
Hasn't the million dollar comp been erased by the city officials? Presently Car Mike will get a road as all other business owners will get to share with Car Mike and that's it.
Anon 10:27 Do you think the plural (folks) not (folk) had anything to do with it. Strength in numbers is a well understood slogan in the Illinois Valley area and it does WIN. I agree we need more of that
I did mean the plural. It is my understanding that when the NT published the article about the $800+K being used as a direct payment incentive, many people contacted their Aldermen.
67 comments:
This is a huge loss for Peru and the local area. I do not know the present number of employees but do know that at one time it was over 300 of which many were single mothers.
This is a payroll which they and the community cannot stand to lose.
Being a victim of closings and plant shut downs several times I would utilize dislocated workers and the state employment service. Also if you can afford to and the opportunity arises do not be afraid to move.
Do your networking and never forget to mention that you need a job.
Like the other comment. 200 people who spend 50 dollars a week in our business retail district, that's $40 thousand a month. These people will need all sorts of gov. assistants, housing, food, etc.. these are people's lives who were willing to work. Moving sounds like a good choice to a more populated area. And the city is spending money like there is no tomorrow. You watch how many landlords put their property in HUD assistance. This is sickening.
I was told by someone who attended the last council meeting, that the mayor made a comment that it is possible that Peru might possibly see a reduction in state money sent to us in the amount of $500,000 and said that the Financial Officer needs to look at our budget once more.
And to the comment about the number of HUD increasing for those needing low rent assistance. The city already has many homes with For Rent signs in front of them and they remain vacant.
Rent is outrageous in the illinois valley for a large percent of the income level. The grant money for the business beautification with a 50/50 match should have never been given to businesses either. We taxpayers are and did pay for this. Why should we the taxpayers pay for a businesses storefronts? I say this being a business owner. Our schools will be bombarded with more free or reduced meals for students with this closing of office max.
Peru has six separate entities working for promotion of the city. One being a lobbyist, another a internet service, the third being a unpaid volunteer with a expense account and the fourth a long term standard bearer by the identity of Illinois Valley Area Chamber of Commerce.
The fifth who is possibly least known for having the responsibility of city promotion but is important as any of the first four is Mayor Harl.
In parallel with Mayor Harl is the completely unacknowledged as well as the most unrecognized - the citizenship of Peru.
Each of these six should be active in the creation of employment of Peru, but which of these six are active in the responsibilities of maintaining the occupations already here? Who has been assigned this responsibility and what have they been doing to accomplish this goal.
Who visits the present employers to make sure they want to keep Peru as a long term home rather than a landing zone until incentives such as a TIF or Enterprise Zone exists.
Recently much time has been spent in attracting the sand industry and a state of the art movie theater. The amount of money to be spent in preparation and infrastructure for each is only to be determined when they stop asking and Peru stops spending in their direction which most likely will never come.
A percentage of employees and a few citizens of Peru have forecast the touchy position of Office Max remaining in Peru at least for the last 6 to 8 months. Red flags have been sent numerous times that the possibility of this employers movement of location existed of over 200 good paying jobs which were much needed by a certain segment of the population of the locality.
A basic question has never been answered by anyone directly responsible for maintaining the local jobs Peru already has.
Who has been appointed by the city to perform this important responsibility and what have you actively done and what are you actively going to do?
Recent forecasts by Mayor Harl, Robert Vickery and Peru City Council for 2015, in the 2d month of 2015 have been stepped on by the 800 pound gorilla and makes one doubtful that they can do what they should have done in 2014. Time after time there have been comments sent into the blog warning city officials that it is necessary to continuously build for the future but it is also necessary not to forget what you already have!
Evidence of the green and white campaign has started in Peru. The city logo does not appear nor does the any mention of the no competitive multi million dollar long term contract.
These where not union jobs.
I believe we have known this was coming since the merger.
It is sad. This is the type of employer that is in the background and unnoticed until they shut down. I bet very few people outside of the business knew that this call center existed.
It's been said time and time again by Alderman Rodney Perez the cirty needs a plan. Strategic Plan. The mayor, Waldorf and Lukosus plan has failed and continues to do so. Rodney brought in a professional planning advisor to present the city with the advantages of having a plan. Of course the good ole boys opposed any planning and decided to do it their own way.
The reason rental properties is so high is caused by property taxes. Many years ago you could pay off your house and live happily ever after through retirement. Just wait, it will get worse and your social security or any other source of retirement savings will not be able to afford the property tax alone. We will continue hearing -We have no other choice but to raise property taxes!! My answer will always be- Sure you do but you needed to start yesterday by spending as if there is a gold mine sitting at the cities electric plant that will be flowing down the river sinking some day.
This decision for re-location of Office Max has been going on for over a year. The State of Illinois has been in the discussions along with local officials including State reps. This is a corporate decision and involves many factors that your local government has no control over. Its sad and impacts the entire community. The center has the infrastructure to entice any other similar business to locate. Wall Street has more to blame than the local city. Buyouts, stock prices rule. If you city offered no tax zones, no sales tax and State offered no payroll tax, no corporate tax that wouldn't make a difference with the decision to move. Most call centers are run in foreign lands and you can tell with the cold calls we receive on a daily basis. Will customer service matter? Has it mattered to other companies without competition? Comcast, Health care, etc. What we have is Office Max, Office Depot, Staples combining services and locating in States without the tax structure and labor laws we have.
These where not digging machine jobs and they really didn't produce any sales tax - so they are of no use to Peru. Maybe our Economic Director can turn the building into an outlet mall.
8:28 Hit the internet and call up somebody from some college and bring him in to tell you what the city needs. Is that called professional planning? There was a infrastructure committee for the local city and the task was to plan the projects for the future that was the appropriate way to plan. Rodney's call made no sense. The Mayor's plan made sense. The committee work never got off the ground floor. Was it the committee or the individuals or the work. The city council committee is doing the work of planning and it looks like Peru has many projects. Must be working.
9:18, I agree 150%. It is high time we did away with so-called this free market system. It would be so much better if all business was run by the government and we did not have to worry about stock prices and the evil Wall Street financiers.
9:42 Your tax dollars are paying for the free lunch program. That may be the one program that everybody agrees with. Downtown areas are for the most part owned by small family businesses and its in the best interest of a local city to keep the downtown business area vibrant.
9:46 AM, Not sure where you get your info but here are the facts:
The city has no long-term plan for community development. No long-term plan for economic development. No long-term plan for infrastructure improvement. Rodney tried to initiate the focus on planning and Harl and the others ignored him because of their petty personal hatred of the Mr. Perez. Harl never had a plan for infrastructure until the Infrastructure Committee created the focus on the need to create a long-term plan but Waldorf and Lukosus were so threatened by the professionals on the Infrastructure Committee that they boycotted the committee meetings until the members decided to shut it down for lack of support form the Mayor and aldermen.
9:44 You are wrong. That business does produce sales tax and is important to the economy in the area. The building provides real-estate taxes.
8:28 The area has a so-called home exemption that freezes property taxes. It has a age requirement and income levels. that allows those retirees to limit the property tax increase, the drawback is that the rest pick up the increase.
Peru in the past has been sensitive to property tax increases. As those old hats leave office the next batch won't hold those property taxes as sacred cows and increase those taxes as needed.
@9:46 not sure where you're getting your information from. I was at that meeting when Rodney Brought that strategic planner in. He was not from a college he was a professional planner. His presentation to the council was very good and something the city should've done a long time ago.
10:28 - sales tax is collected for the buyer's location, not the sales person's location. So, unless they sell something to a business in Peru Illinois, no local sales tax is collected. There is also no product at this location. Product is shipped from one of the distribution centers.
The homestead exemption does not freeze taxes. If freezes the assessed value of the property. Taxes continue to rise - but not as much as they would due to increases in value.
The property tax issue is played by local politicians to scare people that don't look at the complete tax picture. For most people, higher property taxes are more beneficial than higher income and sales taxes.
Now - the point of my post was that our local Mayor and Council do not see the benefit of having "office jobs" or even industrial jobs in the area. They only consider retail and public works construction. This shows that our Mayor and Council only care about generating revenue for he city to spend. They don't give a hoot about the employment of the citizens. This will change as the population decreases. But then it will be to late.
11:17
Sales tax is collected at the Peru site. The sand transportation business is a recent example that shows Peru is interested in jobs. The new proposed cinema creates jobs.
Your post about property taxes is ignorant to those who pay the property tax. You can't control a property tax, and income tax is controlled by your wages. If you don't have a job your property taxes still need to be paid.
Point of sales is how taxes are collected, not the warehouse!
Your city has nothing to encourage the call center to stay. It's a big business and a major company. What can you do to have them stay in Peru, Ottawa, Naperville? Free water? It's a State deal and maybe the those making the decision can get a workforce that will work for $2.50 a hour and the corporate crew can live in warm weather without paying state income taxes?
You make think your local politicians can make the sea part. Honestly, they have very little to offer.
10:42 Now, why would Rodney bring someone to a meeting without the request of the Mayor? Can anybody bring in something to sell to the city at the meetings? I have a uncle Buck and he has a idea to have all city vehicles run on cow manure, should I bring Uncle Buck to the next meeting?
This has been talked about for the last 6 years. I can't believe they did not close in 2010. Glad they stayed open for 5 more years. This is not a surprise, especially if you pay any attention to our economic area.
1:31 PM, sales tax is not collected at the point of sale. The rules are the same for Internet sales and catalog sales: You have to charge and collect sales tax when you deliver the product to a state in which you have a "physical presence”. That is what the “Amazon Law” is all about. The customer only pays one sales tax – and that is to his local jurisdiction.
I pay property tax and my logic is sound. The real estate tax is deductible when itemizing. Since Illinois also charges and income tax, that is also deductible from the Federal income tax. In order to deduct sales tax, you must give up the deduction for state income tax. This only makes sense if you have a large purchase such as an automobile. Therefore – from an overall tax perspective, if I have the choice between a higher real estate tax or a higher sales tax, I will take the higher real estate tax. The reason is that it will result in fewer of my dollars being sent to the government. You argued that: “you can't control a property tax, and income tax is controlled by your wages. If you don't have a job your property taxes still need to be paid.” This argument makes no sense. You always have the option of selling your property to satisfy the obligation. The idea of keeping your wages low to keep your income tax low is not logical unless of course you mean to keep it low through loopholes and exemptions. If you have several children you should also desire a lower sales tax since you are actually spending more than a single person. The real estate deduction will also result in more bang from your refundable tax credits which are not afforded to most single people. This is how some people end up with a tax refund greater than the amount of tax that was withheld from their earnings throughout the year.
3:20
There is nothing worse than a pretend economist or a pretend financial planner. Point of sales is where the item is sold, not where it is made or bought. The municipality than has the call center makes the sales tax, that is how the law is written. The customer pays one sales tax and that goes into the coffers of the location of the call center. Peru and other towns that have these call centers lose the sales tax.
Your argument that you can control property taxes by not buying property? Yes, we can live in cardboard boxes and hope the government won't tax. And yes, your real-estate taxes are deductible if you have enough tax exemptions. Most of us can't come up with those totals, unless you own a lot of property. Your original argument was that you feel that paying higher property taxes instead of paying income tax is the way to go. Are you kidding?
Taxes in most towns in the Illinois Valley area have low property taxes and sales taxes may be a few cents higher or lower depending on where you shop. If you have several children than that's your choice and don't give me your sad song about paying higher real-estate taxes to educate, feed, recreate, and police your litter of kids. Most of all don't charge me to take care of your crew by paying higher real-estate taxes. For many of us on homestead exemptions don't raise our property taxes to take care of your kids.
1:45 What makes you think Harl never knew about the Planner going to that meeting? Maybe you're an insider and know something we don't? I was the one who posted above and was at that meeting as I said earlier. It was on the agenda that's why I attended because I wanted to see the presentation. I would think if you wanted to take your uncle buck to a meeting for a presentation all you'd have to do is ask. After all you are on the council or close tie to- correct?
"The municipality than has the call center makes the sales tax, that is how the law is written." That is not how the law is written. When you buy an item on the internet or by calling a cataloger - you pay Illinois sales tax IF the business you are calling has a presence in Illinois. If they don't, then you pay no sales tax. So - Somebody from Atlanta calling that particular call center and making a purchase will pay Georgia Sales Tax.
"Your argument that you can control property taxes by not buying property?" - I did not say that.
"And yes, your real-estate taxes are deductible if you have enough tax exemptions. Most of us can't come up with those totals."
Maybe you better look into this - because almost everyone that owns a house can itemize. Unless you have a half dozen kid or so. Then you don't pay any tax anyway.
I'm sorry - I stand by my original statement. For most people, IF YOU HAVE THE CHOICE between higher real estate taxes or higher sales tax - the higher real estate tax is the way to go. But, don't get your undies in a bundle because around here, they just raise them both.
Also - more of the real estate tax stays local as compared to income tax.
There is a policy in England to add tax multipliers to houses that have unused bedrooms. The logic is to add an incentive for retired people to sell larger houses and move into small houses or retirement apartments. This applies to everyone except traditional royal estates.
Anyone that believes that a s huge series of comments were not posted on this blog way over a year ago do not read the blog. Warning after warning was posted that Peru's Office Max was going to shut down in the near future. The suggestion was made for city officials to visit Peru's Office Max to see if there was anything the city could do to possibly save it from closing.
Everything that has happened in Peru has been behind shut doors in closed sessions so that only a few know what attempts, if any, were made. As a result of Peru having more closed sessions than meetings open to the public most of the previously concerned citizens are seperating themseves from working directly or indirectly with the existing government.
Rapidly returning to Office Max there were definite tell tale signs and red flags flying for at least the last two years that the call center was leaving if nothing was done.
Possibly now Mayor Harl will become more interested in a city manager and rid his administration of the Economic Director uness he is interested in another auto supply house or a donut and cupcake business in the far north end of Peru.
Don't you ask why, why is LaSalle with so little becoming so successful with Don A. and Peru with such potential is becoming so unsuccessful with a person who has to have it handed to him before he can screw it up.
Last year it was Unitite, this year it is Office Max plus whatever in the next 10 months.
Peru has spent a huge fortune on motel demolition what industrial demolition does the city fathers want to pay for next with our money. or are they going to settle for 1 million to CarMike for minimum pay occupations?
Rodney Perez may not have any friends on the city council, but he has lots of friends and political supporters. Go Perez!!
6:08 it is well documented the place was going to close. This was a national corporate decision and local government officials could not have stopped it. You have NO idea how a business works. I'm so sick and tired of the constant hatred and negative comments from ignorant people. I used to come here to see if there was any interesting discussion but that is just completely gone.
ANON 6:19 Apparently you have no acquaintance with the little mouse that roared. All agree that Peru City Officials have never or do not own the keys to the doors of Reliable, Office Depot, Office Max, or Staples but they do own the employees of the Peru division to make a effort at representation.
Isn't it amazing that someone can identify that a person has no idea how business works when they have no means of identifying that person. We will never know if local government officials could have stopped the move because we do know that they never tired. Remember it is the squeaky wheel that gets greased.
Full circle....
My point is that the Call Center does not produce as much revenue for the city as a retail store dose. Therefore, the Peru City Council and Mayor could not care less if this business exists. This call center dese not give them revenue. Everything Peru does regarding economic development is to produce more revenue for the City - not produce jobs for the people. Since real estate taxes are held low for political reasons, Peru sells electricity and promotes retail.
I agree 6:22 Alderman Perez is there for the right reason...the people, and I could care less if the rest of the council dislike him.
9:36 I agree with you. I know he was there for me and he isn't even my alderman. My alderman was not interested in my dilemma but Mr. Perez was.
Anon 8 :03 AM The start of the revenue chain is the call center. If X number of people do not receive a paycheck from the call center they will not have revenue for the retail store until a replacement occupation is acquired.
2:42, you and I know that. Our elected officials only see the direct revenue from sales tax. They cannot think like that.
5:25; I think somebody on the council said it best when they where talking about the sand processing and shipping facility. The question was asked what good would the facility be for Peru. The answer was - and I'm quoting - "One word, Tipping Fees."
ha ha - that shows you how the Peru council thinks. They don't care about jobs, they only care about more revenue to spend. And they can't even count to boot.
Your wrong on this.......
Peru does receive sales tax from the call center.
The move is prompted by the Staples buyout and to consolidate profits. Peru has no voice in this. The State of Illinois has no voice in this.
Please be accurate on the posts. It is very unfortunate that the company is leaving. Don't blame Peru, Ottawa or Naperville. The company is publically traded. Blame Wall Street.
"Peru does receive sales tax from the call center."
That is not entirely true. Illinois receives sales tax for sales that are shipped to customers in Illinois. I don't know how many times this needs to be explained. When a business ships products to the end customer in another state - the state they are shipping to collects the sales tax. The only exception is if the business that is shipping the product does not have a physical presence in the customer's state. In that case, the customer is responsible for paying the appropriate tax to their state. Period! This is covered by the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause and Federal Law. Step back and think about this. When you buy something on-line or on the telephone - Do you pay sales tax to any other state besides Illinois? The answer is no! You pay Illinois tax because you are in Illinois.
"The move is prompted by the Staples buyout and to consolidate profits. Peru has no voice in this. The State of Illinois has no voice in this."
Nobody is arguing that. That is how things work. The better term would be to reduce costs.
"Blame Wall Street"
That comment is unnecessary. The market is the market. Do you complain about "Wall Street" when your retirement account makes money? The point of any merger is to leverage the best of both companies and eliminate the redundancies and increase profits. That is a GOOD THING! We need more of that!
Anon 8:58 AM Good job you have found a traditional band-aid to cover up the lack of city leadership in the leaving of Office Max from Peru. How often has representation of Peru visited the local call center to inquire if the city could do anything to help them?
To know that you are wanted and appreciated counts in big ways.
Your answer is nothing more than a cover up for the Peru government and a popular excuse of lets blame big business.
Has Staples been contacted to inquire if they would have any use of their soon to be empty building or if they have any contact of another corporation that would? All appearances indicate that Peru has lost a major employer by sitting on their asses when when they wake up and do something positive to recover? What is their long range and short range plan?
"Where XXX has a business "presence,” we are required to collect sales tax. As obligated, Staples charges sales tax on orders for taxable items in accordance with state and local tax laws."
"XXX charges sales tax on orders for taxable items in accordance with applicable state and local tax laws. The amount of sales tax charged depends on several factors, including the item purchased, the destination of the order and, where applicable, the location from which your order is shipped."
Products generally ship from the closest fulfillment center. Nothing ships from Peru.
The City of Peru's long and short range plan is to continue to spend sales tax revenue without any planning. They also plan to give money to developers to create more retail and entertainment facilities in an attempt to increase sales tax revenue so they can continue spending without a plan.
The decision was made to close the Peru Center back when the merger between Office Max and Office Depot took place. It is not the first time they have closed a call center. Office Depot had no customer service in the US, everything was offshore in the Philippines or India, there was never a plan to keep customer service in the US. There is nothing the cities of Peru or Ottawa could have done to save these centers. Office Max corporate asked Gov. Quinn for more than $30 million in tax breaks to keep the HQ in Naperville, he turned them down and it moved to the Office Depot HQ in Boca Raton, FL.
Call Center jobs are actually returning to the US at a rapidly increasing rate. According to the National Association of Call Centers..."After years of sending call center jobs to India, the Philippines, Mexico and other countries, companies are bringing them back to the U.S. An estimated 5 million Americans are employed in call centers. The trend is driven by changes in technology, rising overseas labor costs and customers demanding better service."
I would guess the company is shifting the call centers to Florida with the company HQ.
Some of the reasons that I would consider moving a facility like this include Illinois' high cost Workman's Comp., Unemployment Comp., and Telecommunications taxes. LaSalle County also has a relatively high cost for Health Insurance. This is due to the high rate of smoking and the greater than average preponderance of problem drinking.
I'm sure there are other reasons to move but I think those costs alone would justify any company that is capable of it to leave. I don't think these people where organized under the CWA, but RTW laws could play a role also.
The sales tax question is very easy. Peru has received a great deal of sales tax from the call centers. The sale is made the State collects the tax and the city receives the portion from the state.
Sales tax is not collected from the shipping point and sales tax is not collected from the corporate office. It is AND has been from the point of the sale. Peru call center fields a order, Peru gets the sales tax, and Illinois gets the sales tax. The location of the order is charged shipping in addition to the sales tax.
10:02 and 10:29 Call centers produce a great deal of sales tax. This is a big lose for those cities, employees and communities.
Yes, your right 10:02 IF YOU OWN STOCK, you may benefit. Your Staples stock may go from $17.00 a share to $18.56 a share. Otherwise most of us lose.
Thank you 10:51 AM for a brief history of Office Depot in Peru a history which I have since Reliable to Office Depot and many others join me in.
I for one am not interested in the dreams of a loser but am very interested in those of a winner. Before Peru is a landscape of empty buildings without jobs there had best be plans made to occupy them so people have money to spend to have to pay sales tax. Hopes, promises and excuses don't put food on the table and the people of this area deserve better.
Last week the need of a task force to study the need of a city administrator was proven not to presently exist but the need of a city economic director was proven highly essential. This is only one of the positions needed but at this time it is the most important and to fill it with excuses of being a unpaid volunteer have proven it worthless unless another Jack Hollerich comes out of the sky. he had vision.
10:43 What is this plan your are talking about? Is there such a thing as planning for developers that you are not aware of that may be interested in your community?
Spending plans are called budgets. All cities have budgets. Is it that vactor truck that has got your dander up? That was in the Peru planning since the flood and should of been in prior to the flood. Most of us in North Peru like that investment. The newspaper had a story about all of the infrastructure projects in Peru in the next year. Is that not planning?
"Peru has received a great deal of sales tax from the call centers. The sale is made the State collects the tax and the city receives the portion from the state. Sales tax is not collected from the shipping point and sales tax is not collected from the corporate office."
This is 100% WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!
Here it is - Directly from the Illinois Department of Revenue web page:
Sales — The following list contains some of the most common examples of transactions that are exempt from tax. (See the Illinois Administrative Code, Section 130.120 and Publication 104, Common Sales Tax Exemptions for a comprehensive list.)
•Sales to out-of-state buyers
I removed all the other exemptions.
The only time they charge Illinois Sales Tax is when an item is sold to a customer in Illinois. The call center takes orders from all over the country. The sales tax is collected for every state!
11:41 - I'd be willing to bet that you own stock in the company and don't even know it. Do you have a non-Federal Government pension plan? Do you have a 401K? Do you have an IRA? Do you own any mutual funds at all?
1:07
Read and interpret all you want. The call centers have been sales tax producers that result in tens of thousands each year to Peru.
Check with the City Clerk!
1:45, the Clerk can not tell you how much sales tax each business produces. That information is not passed on by the State of Illinois and is definitely not public knowledge. From time to time, there has been proposed legislation in Springfield to allow cities to know how much each business collects. But it has never gone anywhere. The reason is simple - if you have that information, you would be able to estimate the gross sales of a private business which should not be public knowledge.
Please read up on sales tax. The call center has no products, ships no products... it only takes orders. The orders are sent all over the country from distribution centers all over the country.
Call Centers also handle international customers. They don't pay Illinois Sales tax either.
I think the fundamental misunderstanding is that somebody does not understand what a call center is. They are not there to service local customers. They are there to service customers from all over the country. Sometimes they are divided into regions, but I think this one is nation wide. This call center is also primarily B to B. Meaning that they do not sell to consumers. Often, sales tax is not applied to B to B sales. This is the case when the customer is going to sell the product to their own customer.
The person that keeps saying that most of this call center's sales are not necessarily subject to Illinois and Illinois Home Rule sales tax is correct.
Illinois does have a rule that if you purchase something in an Illinois city and have it delivered to a different Illinois city - you pay the rate at the point of sale, unless you have a location in both cities. Then you pay your own local home rule tax. That was the argument with the oil company in, I think, Mark. That company was charging off sales at the cheaper rate in Mark and the Chicago suburb got all PO'd. Again, I think it was Mark but I could be wrong.
In summary, on interstate commerce, the buyers state dictates the sales tax. Even if the seller has no presence in the buyers state, most states have a law that says the buyer must file it. Please close this issue. The call center was not a source for huge amounts of sales tax.
Don't you know? Peru is Home Rule. That supersedes the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, the Illinois Constitution, State Law, and Federal Law. ha ha
I can't believe this argument is still going on. I go away for a few days and there is still one holdout that doesn't understand how sales tax is collected. When buying on-line, through a catalog, or on the telephone, the buyer pays sales tax for his own location.
The call center is a big source of sales tax. The cite is the collection point and the city receives that sales tax.
The City of Mark was receiving the sales tax, it was the call center for fuel. Prior to that location the City of Peru received the sales tax.
11:37 - you are absolutely wrong. The only Illinois sales tax collected by the call center was from Illinois customers. That's it. You don't know what you are talking about and you refuse to learn. Please go to the Illinois Department of Revenue web page. Google "collecting sales tax for catalog sales." Do some effing research and stop trying to say that he call center was a huge source of sales tax for Peru. It was not. Never was and no call center ever will be.
I will continue to call you a liar until you stop posting this lie!
And also! the fuel sales in Mark had nothing to do with Peru. It was a Chicago Suburb routing calls through Mark. Sales tax for sale INSIDE ILLINOIS is at the point of sale.
Sales tax for calls from OUTSIDE ILLINOIS go to the STATE THAT THE CUSTOMER IS IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11:37 AM, March 03, 2015
You are wrong on both accounts. Stop spreading this falsehood. You obviously don't know what you are talking about.
oh boy. What does it take to get trough to you. you are most definitely a hard headed ignorant person 11;37.
Yes it is important for a area to receive taxes but people and their ability to obtain a occupation with a living wage are way more important? What do you propose will take the place of over 200 local jobs? 100 donuts shops or 70 auto supply stores?
10:35 AM
And since the company that owns Advanced Auto owns one other local shop, it is suspected that that second "first" store will be closing fairly soon. I don't remember all the corporations decisions involved with this but this is fairly common knowledge.
10:35 - and the point of the entire argument is that the power's that be in Peru only look at the direct revenue that a business will give to the city. They don't care about indirect revenue provided by people working. And my point was that since this facility does not produce a huge amount of direct tax dollars - Peru's leadership really doesn't care about it.
All you have to do is listen to a council meeting and you can hear it at every meeting. Give money to concerts because we get hotel motel taxes and sales tax. Give money to the baseball tournament because we get hotel motel taxes and stales tax. Give darn near a million dollars to some unknown developer because we can charge an entertainment tax.... you get the picture.
Hasn't the million dollar comp been erased by the city officials? Presently Car Mike will get a road as all other business owners will get to share with Car Mike and that's it.
5;21, yes. But they (the city) tried until folks started really bellyaching about it. We need more of that.
Anon 10:27 Do you think the plural (folks) not (folk) had anything to do with it. Strength in numbers is a well understood slogan in the Illinois Valley area and it does WIN. I agree we need more of that
I did mean the plural. It is my understanding that when the NT published the article about the $800+K being used as a direct payment incentive, many people contacted their Aldermen.
Post a Comment