Gurnee making more off food, drink

Gurnee's financial waistline should grow if the hungry and thirsty continue flocking to restaurants and pubs in the village.

Projections from a new tentative budget show the village expects to collect about $1.6 million from its 1 percent food and alcoholic beverage tax for the fiscal year starting May 1 and running to April 30, 2009.

If it pans out, the financial prognostication means prepared food and drinks would boost the village's tax take by about $100,000, up from this year's estimated $1.5 million.

Out-of-towners are believed to be generating most of Gurnee's tax from the restaurant and bar purchases.

"With 27 million visitors to the community each year, the village is able to continue to provide quality services to its residents while minimizing the tax burden upon those who live within Gurnee's corporate boundaries," the tentative budget document states.

However, Mayor Kristina Kovarik said the village must be cautious about its optimism on food and drink sales in the middle of an economic downturn.

"It has done better than we expected," Kovarik said of the food and beverage tax, "but you can't say that we can maintain it because it's at the whim of the consumer."

Gurnee created the food and beverage tax in 2006 as a way to boost the bottom line in a town that doesn't levy a property tax. The village's tentative budget is set at $49 million for the new financial year.

Another Gurnee revenue source that comes from discretionary spending, the amusement tax, is expected to be flat for the next year. Six Flags Great America accounts for most of the amusement tax money.

Revenue from the amusement tax is projected at about $2 million for 2008-09, roughly on par with this year's estimated take. Gurnee places a 3 percent tax on admission fees to Great America, movies, golf and other entertainment within the village.

Kovarik said it has become more difficult to forecast attendance at Great America because parent company Six Flags Inc. has stopped providing attendance figures to the village.

"Six Flags has been pretty flat," she said.