Chicago flunks cloud economics | InfoWorld [Video]

The city’s cynical plan to increase cloud computing taxes during a billion-dollar budget shortfall will drive away the businesses it needs to succeed.

The city of Chicago has devised a brilliant plan to jack up its cloud computing tax from 9% to 11%. As someone who has worked in tech for decades, I’ve seen this movie before, and (spoiler alert) it didn’t have a happy ending.

This is not a diatribe against taxes; taxes are not the issue here. This is about a ploy to soak a specific technology in a small geographical region with the hope that the money will come in without driving the businesses away. Here’s another spoiler alert: That plot twist doesn’t work out, either.

Do the math

Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, is looking at a $1 billion budget shortfall. He thinks the answer is an extra $128 million in taxes from cloud computing users. Classic political move—find something …