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West Chicago council debates grocery and sales tax options, directs staff to draft ordinance to hold grocery tax 'on the books'
Summary
After debate over budget shortfalls and household impact, the council directed staff to draft a version of the grocery tax that could be approved but not immediately implemented; finance staff said the grocery tax is estimated to generate about $425,000 annually.
Chair (speaker 1) opened the meeting with annual remarks and said he had listened to residents and did not favor immediately reinstating a 1% grocery tax or a separate 0.25% sales-tax increase.
The main discussion concentrated on ordinance 25-00021, a proposed increase to the municipal retailers' and service occupation taxes (a sales-tax measure) and a related grocery-tax option. Council members weighed the city’s budget shortfall against the potential burden on vulnerable residents and disagreed about timing.
"I had indicated previously that I would be against the idea of reinstating that 1% grocery tax," Chair said, adding he would be open to placing a tax option on the books but not implementing it without further council action. Several aldermen supported postponing implementation to allow more public input and to preserve flexibility if grant revenue declines.
Finance staff (speaker 6) told the council that revenue estimates are derived using standard industrial classification (SIC) codes and that two independent staff assessments (including the DMMC) produced a $425,000 estimate for grocery-tax revenue. Staff cautioned that reporting does not break out grocery revenue at a household level and that, if the city stopped collecting the grocery tax in a given year, the city would not have a straightforward, store-by-store mechanism to measure exactly what it would have collected.
Council members ran through a series of follow-up questions on data and timing. One member offered a rough per-capita illustration: dividing the $425,000 estimate by a population denominator cited in the meeting produced an approximate $16 per person figure—an intentionally crude estimate intended only to provide scale, not a household bill calculation.
After discussion, council members signaled consensus direction to staff: prepare a modified ordinance that would place the grocery-tax authority on the books but include language delaying or suspending implementation until the council determined it was necessary. Staff noted an administrative deadline: if an approved ordinance is not postmarked by Oct. 1 for a January 1 start, collection would not begin until April, reducing first-year revenue.
Next steps: staff will draft the ordinance language under direction from the council and return with the amendment at a future meeting for formal action; council members emphasized they expect further public input before any implementation decision.
