City of Chicago sticks it to Real Estate Buyers & Sellers one day early

Your trusty guides have several closings scheduled for today; one day before the dreaded increase in the Real Estate Transfer Tax is supposed to take effect.  To no avail.  The City of Chicago and local Title Companies have conspired against forward thinking buyers and sellers of property trying to beat the deadline.

The City of Chicago requires that you PURCHASE your stamps by the end of business TODAY.  Even if you close this afternoon, then dash down to the City Clerk's office and get it the line that stretches out the building, the bureaucrats have vowed that the office will not stay open one moment late to accommodate the rush.

Might it make sense that if you close today, and then head to the Clerk's office with your HUD-1 showing that you closed on your property on March 31, that you would be covered? 

Of course not.

And, if your Title Company actually were to send an associate down to the Clerk's office with a bunch of closing paperwork, the City Clerk will only sell the Transfer Stamps for three transactions.  If you have more than three transactions, you must leave the window and start over again at the end of the line.

Nice.