The Village of South Jacksonville’s board of trustees wants to take some time to discuss the passage of a local grocery occupation tax.
The State of Illinois did away with their version of the tax in the most recent Spring legislative session. Governor J.B. Pritzker has urged municipalities not to re-institute the tax locally. As of May 2nd, 106 municipalities – including the City of Jacksonville – have passed the tax in order to keep the revenue stream.
One trustee for the village says he’s opposed to the tax. J.W. Coleman says its time to find other revenue streams or to simply tighten the belt on the village’s finances: “My ideas are to not even enforce it. We do not have enough sustainable grocery [business] to produce any giant revenue off of it anyway, in my opinion. If we can control anything, try to control it at the local level and reduce a little bit of our tax burden especially since we were all hit July 1st with a monumental amount of new taxes. Now, do you see it directly every day? No, but when you go to pay your cell phone or go to the gas pump you see it. And if we can do something as a little village to help out to save a few hundred dollars a year, I’m all for it.”
Village Treasurer Mindy Olson said that the village was $193,000 under budget in the previous fiscal year. Auditors will be finalizing those numbers during the week of July 28th. Olson says if the village removes the tax, they will lose approximately $15,000 in annual revenue.
Coleman says while it’s not a drop in the hat, he says the village can find other ways to better direct services, audit processes and simply be conservative with taxpayer money: “I’m not saying it’s a drop in the hat. I’m thinking we can tighten our belts a little bit because I have to at home. If my expenses go up at home, I can’t go to my employer and say ‘Hey, I need an offset of 3% to cover this.’ I have to manage my checkbook accordingly and my budget accordingly. Why should the village be any different, in my opinion?”
Communities have until October to decide whether to keep or kill the 1% tax on everyday grocery items. According to the Illinois Policy Institute, Illinois residents saved approximately $360 million in total the year state leaders suspended the tax as a way to combat rampant inflation.