City of Chicago Seeking Snitches

Earlier this year it was the White House caught looking for snitches.

Now we know where they got the idea from.

Would you be willing to rat out a business that's cheating Chicago on taxes in exchange for a share of back taxes recovered?

City Hall is counting on it.

Mayor Daley's tough-times, 2010 budget includes a first-ever "Tax Whistleblower Program" expected to include cash bounties for informants who deliver the goods on unpaid business taxes.

The cash reward would be a percentage of the amount recovered, but specifics are still being worked out. The dreaded employee head tax and lease tax are just two of the most frequent targets for tax cheats.

"It's just another way of bringing people into compliance," said Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh.

"It would probably be ... a business knowing that a competitor is not remitting a tax. An employee [of the tax-dodging business] could know that, too. Typically, you need to provide some type of incentive."

Now since Chicago has their fair share of illegal aliens, what happens if you rat on on their employers? Will the feds be allowed to come in and remove the illegals?

How about politicians on the take? Will it be OK to rat on them or do you risk a trip to the bottom of the Chicago River?