Itasca will cut liquor licenses fees in half for 2021

Itasca will cut liquor license fees in half this year in an effort to help restaurants hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Village officials approved the fee reductions on Tuesday. More than 24 businesses will see their fees reduced. The 50% reduction is expected to reduce revenue for the village by about $17,775 annually.

Using the food and beverage tax as an indicator, village staff found that restaurants have reported 47% less revenue in the 2020-2021 fiscal year than they did in the previous fiscal year.

"We know that last year was a really difficult period for these businesses to deal with, some of them closed for months entirely and some closed with take out as the only option," Mayor Jeff Pruyn said.

"This is our way of giving some help to those that stuck through it."

The village also introduced the Itasca Bucks program last year to help restaurants.

Itasca Bucks is a voucher program that provides each household in the village with $50 in vouchers that can be used as partial payment for food orders at participating restaurants in town. Vouchers are in $5 and $10 increments and only one voucher can be used at a time for dine-in, takeout and delivery orders.

Residents who don't want to use their Itasca Bucks can mail them back to the village or put them in the drop box at village hall, and the vouchers will be donated to the Itasca Food Pantry.

To date, $164,670 in Itasca Bucks have been redeemed, generating more than $635,500 in total sales, according to Itasca village officials. The cost to the village so far is $215,625.