‘More like a transition’: Elgin council approves local grocery tax
Following the lead of hundreds of other communities in the state, Elgin City Council members gave preliminary approval Wednesday to replace the state’s 1% grocery tax with an equal local tax.
They’ll dedicate the estimated $1.2 million in revenue to lead service line replacement.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law last year repealing the 1% statewide grocery tax, effective Jan. 1, 2026. The law allows cities to enact their own grocery tax to maintain the status quo.
Council person Diana Alfaro said that according to the latest data from the Illinois Municipal League, 513 other municipalities had adopted a local grocery tax.
She said the city faces a number of infrastructure projects and uncertainty about federal funding.
“Losing $1.2 million every year would take a big hit to our community,” she said.
Council person Steve Thoren suggested the money be earmarked toward the ongoing lead service line replacement project. Elgin has roughly 8,700 lead service lines remaining and is removing nearly 1,000 lines annually at a cost of approximately $15,000 per household or business.
“It’s really not like initiating a new tax,” he said. “I’m not a fan of taxes, but this is more like a transition. It’s something the people have been paying. It’s a very, very small amount to individuals but it makes a big difference in the city with all the expenses we have and the mandates that we have.”
Though the motion passed unanimously, Mayor David Kaptain and council member Corey Dixon voiced opposition to the tax.
Kaptain echoed Pritzker’s message when he brought the repeal to the state legislature, calling it “the most regressive tax you could possibly have.”
He said people at the “bottom of our economy” are already facing a number of rising costs while the city is seeing increased revenue from sales taxes.
“This is the one thing the city of Elgin has a little bit of control over, $1.2 million out of a $370 million budget,” he said. “I think it’s worth the chance to help the people and the poorer people in this community meet their daily budget.”
Council member Dustin Good said his initial reaction was to oppose the tax as well, but believes the loss of revenue would affect every Elgin resident, while the sales tax burden is shared by people outside the city limits who shop in Elgin.
Council member Anthony Ortiz took issue with the repeal of the tax at the state level, saying that the state was merely a pass through for money that was sent back to the communities where it was collected.
“It was easy for the state of Illinois to kill this thing, it doesn’t hurt them at all,” he said. “The only thing this thing did is hurt the municipalities and put us in the position that we’re in now.”
Ortiz didn’t mince any words as he addressed Pritzker’s motivation for repealing the tax.
“The governor did not give a damn about us, because this does not affect them and then he can use that as a running thing for something big he wants to do in life,” he said. “For the state to kill this, it was a no-brainer. It does not affect them, it affects the municipality.”