Oswego Village Board to consider extending grocery tax

The members of the board of directors of the village of Oswego Tuesday evening will examine the opportunity to locally extend a 1% grocery tax to expire throughout the state at the end of the year.

The Illinois general assembly last summer voted to eliminate the grocery tax and Governor JB Pritzker signed it in August. The repeal of the 1% grocery tax will take effect on January 1, 2026.

Several communities of Fox Valley have already approved orders to implement a municipal grocery tax by 1% to replace the state tax. These municipalities include Aurora, Batavia, Montgomery, Yorkville, Sugar Grove and North Aurora, said Oswego finance director Andrea Lamberg, in a report to administrators.

Geneva, St. Charles and Naperville are among the other cities in the region that approved local tax extensions.

The Illinois first set up the grocery tax in 1990 to help finance local governments. The communities have until October 1 to ask the State to continue to locally collect the 1% grocery sales tax on their behalf.

“The implementation of a 1% local grocery tax will maintain the village income base,” said Lamberg.

The tax is equivalent to $ 1 for each $ 100 spent on the grocery store covered by the tax.

The average family of four spending $ 1,372 per month on the grocery store, which results in $ 13.72 in the grocery tax, according to Lamberg.

“It is estimated that around 50% of the grocery stores sold in Oswego is intended for non-residents. This maintains the pressure on owners and tenants and provides a minimum of $ 500,000 per year of non-resident fiscal revenue,” said Lamberg.

The Board of Directors of the village of Oswego must also decide whether the income of a potential local grocery tax would remain in the general village fund or to direct part or all of the income from the water and sewer funds, officials said.

Linda Girardi is an independent journalist for Beacon-News.