Oregon City Council unanimously approves to keep grocery tax

OREGON, Ill. (WTVO) — Oregon City Council unanimously voted to keep the grocery tax after Governor JB Pritzker announced he wanted to eliminate it three months ago.

“So part of it is a little bit of an education of what the impact is,” said Oregon City Manager Darin DeHaan. “Part of it is that discussion on whether or not we can make up for that loss in the future budgets and to figure out where they want to go from here.”

Pritzker’s proposal has alarmed many municipalities as they look at how their budget may be affected. DeHaan presented the board with a resolution to find a solution while many in the state facing this issue look to the Illinois Municipal League.

“They’ve certainly put some good research together that we’ve utilized that provided that to the Council for their review tonight,” said DeHaan. “Again, they’ve created this resolution asking municipalities, take a look at that and decide whether or not they want to pass that as support of that 1% tax, staying on.”

According to DeHaan the research showed the impact for all municipalities in Illinois would be 360 million in total. Oregon would lose between $40,000-$48,000 of its budget while Rockford would lose around $8 million.

Freeport would expect an $800,000 loss and Machesney Park would lose an estimated $250,000.

“The fact that we do this resolution doesn’t mean that if it passes that we have any intention of putting in a 1% tax or putting it back in,” said Oregon Mayor Ken Williams. “We may choose to look for other avenues to find ways to keep from not hurting too bad with the loss of that money.”

The letter will now go to Springfield in support of the grocery tax hoping other communities join alongside them. Conversations may be had about how to supplement the tax if it is taken away.

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