Brookfield officials are considering passing a 1% tax on grocery items that the state of Illinois is set to retire on Jan. 1, 2026.
The tax, which Illinois lawmakers agreed to eliminate last summer, has been collected by the state since 1990 and distributed to local municipalities. Each year, Brookfield earns about $50,000 through the tax, said Doug Cooper, the village’s finance director. The revenue comes from sales made at Tischler Finer Foods, the village’s only grocery store.
“It’s a small amount relative to our budget, but it is a dollar value that will help as we move forward in 2026,” Cooper said at the village board’s committee of the whole meeting on June 23. “We use that money to support public safety, code enforcement and various infrastructure projects. We transfer money out of the general fund into our infrastructure fund to fund road programs, and every little bit helps at that point in time.”
The same legislation that will sunset the statewide tax allows municipalities to enact their own 1% tax to avoid the loss in revenue. Brookfield needs to pass the tax by Oct. 1 for it to go into effect on New Year’s Day, Cooper told village trustees.
“This is not going to be a new tax. The tax is already being assessed. Every time I walk into a grocery store and buy a loaf of bread, I’m paying that 1% tax right now,” he said. “We’re not making any changes to our overall cost to the consumer. They still will be walking in on Jan. 1 of 2026 paying that tax.”
Cooper said the tax, while insignificant to individual consumers, will help Brookfield deal with other expected financial shortfalls next year.
“As we approach the budget for 2026, we know for a fact that we have been budgeting, in the past, $150,000 plus for cannabis revenues, which we don’t think will come to fruition, certainly not in 2026,” he said, in reference to a dispensary on the corner of Ogden and Prairie avenues the board had approved in 2023 that has since stalled. “Also, our local sales tax has me worried. It’s got a definite dip from where we originally budgeted for in 2025, so, already, I’m starting to figure out how I can replace some of these holes in our budget.”
Cooper said nearby municipalities like Riverside, North Riverside, LaGrange and Western Springs are all expected to discuss and likely pass a similar grocery tax in the coming months. LaGrange Park has already approved the 1% tax to start in 2026.
“Each individual board is free to do what they want, but I’m very, very confident that a lot of these towns will adopt it, if there was some worry that we would put Brookfield grocery stores at a disadvantage,” Village President Michael Garvey said.
Village trustees are expected to vote on the tax at their July 14 meeting. While the board was not asked to take action this week, trustees seemed to have mixed opinions on implementing the tax.
“I would want to play devil’s advocate a little bit. I think grocery bills are going up for everyone, and if it’s not a huge financial burden on the village, and it’s something that can be worked out before we start working on the 2026 budget, I’m curious whether that is something we can absorb,” Trustee Julie Narimatsu said. She added the tax could affect low-income residents or families disproportionately.
Cooper said Brookfield would be able to suffer the loss of the revenue but that it may not be prudent for the village to do so.
“We’re not blessed with large reserves,” Village Manager Tim Wiberg added. “As we’re trying to do these momentum-building things like investing in our infrastructure, investing in our facilities, this just makes it more challenging. If we don’t have money that we’ve had since 1990, that’s going to have to be made up for somewhere else. Our costs are not going down.”
Garvey compared the potential passage of the tax to Brookfield’s annual passing-on of Chicago’s water rate increases to residents.
“Some years, the board would ask that same question. Could we absorb that this year, or could we absorb the garbage increase from Groot? Doug’s always going to tell us, yes, we could, but should we, based on what’s happening and what needs to happen going forward?” he said.
Trustee Kyle Whitehead pointed out Brookfield could earn even more revenue from the tax in future years if other grocery stores come to the village.
Trustee Katie Kaluzny said she hoped Brookfield would not consider raising the grocery tax beyond 1% in future years to generate more revenue. Cooper clarified that the tax is capped at 1% for all municipalities.
Trustee Jennifer Hendricks said she also took issue with the tax.
“With the water increases, that’s asking the resident to pay the real cost of the water. It’s not adding an additional cost on top of it, which is what this is. It’s a tax,” she said. “This isn’t a tax on luxuries. This is a tax on necessities, so I’m having a little bit of a hard time with that, but I do understand that we need our revenue to provide our street replacements for our residents.”
“Those are also necessities, right? Infrastructure improvements,” Kaluzny added. “It’s necessities paying for necessities.”
