Riverside and Brookfield’s village boards are taking opposing stances on a local 1% tax on groceries for 2026 after Illinois decided last year to cut that tax at the state level.
In Brookfield, the board approved the tax on July 14, but in Riverside, trustees July 17 directed staff not to draft an ordinance, opting to reconsider the tax next year for possible implementation in 2027.
While the state has left it to local municipalities to impose the tax or let it sunset, it is not a new tax. Through the end of the year, Illinois will collect the tax and disburse the revenue to each town. Both villages have so far relied on the tax for funding to the tune of $40,000 to $50,000 each year.
Brookfield approves 1% grocery tax
The 1% tax on grocery items will go into effect in Brookfield on Jan. 1, 2026. The village board voted 5-1 to approve the tax, with Trustee Jennifer Hendricks voting against it. In June, Finance Director Doug Cooper said revenues from the tax account for about $50,000 of Brookfield’s budget each year.
“It may be a small thing, the few cents that it might cost extra for me to pay, because I don’t struggle to pay my grocery bills, but for someone who does struggle to pay their grocery bills, those extra cents might make a very big difference,” Hendricks told the Landmark. “Those are our neighbors. I don’t want to create an undue burden for them.”
“The state put us in a pretty terrible position,” she added. “Essentially, we’re being asked to either vote for a tax on a necessity or lose an existing revenue stream. It was a really hard decision to make.”
While the other trustees voted to approve the tax, several acknowledged the disproportionate impact that extending it could have on low-income villagers.
“I want to acknowledge that residents are feeling the strain of rising costs and struggling to pay bills each month, and I think even a 1% tax on essentials can be a challenge. At the same time, I think the grocery tax, especially given some revenue shortfalls this year, is important,” Trustee Julie Narimatsu said at the meeting.
“It represents at least partial compensation for staffers, whether it’s parks and rec, public works or other departments in our village; our debt payments for vital infrastructure projects; keeping parks and rec programming rates low to accommodate assistance to families and seniors who need help accessing village programming,” she said. “I really struggled with this vote.”
Trustee Kyle Whitehead called the tax “regressive.”
“I don’t think any of us are excited about a tax conversation like this,” he said. “The reality is, though, we have limited options to raise local revenue for all the critical services we provide, so I don’t think we can afford to let this lapse.”
Hendricks said she relied on advice from another board member to make her decision.
“Trustee [Kit] Ketchmark actually said to me before I came onto the board, ‘Always vote in the way that allows you to sleep at night,’” she said. “I feel that it was a tax that the state shouldn’t have had in the first place. I understand taxing luxury goods; I would struggle much less with that. Tax on cigarettes? Fine. Tax on alcohol? Fine. But when it comes to groceries, those are things that everybody needs.”
Riverside rejects 1% grocery tax
Riverside’s village board had its first discussion on the grocery tax Thursday evening after a six-week summer hiatus, but trustees quickly reached a consensus to let the tax sunset, at least for 2026.
At the meeting, Finance Director Yvette Zavala said Riverside earned $42,525 in revenue last year from the grocery tax, but that number is expected to increase over time for a total estimate of about $502,000 over the next 10 years.
“If we choose not to go forward with the tax, we will have to review the annual budget and look for other ways where we would have to either decrease services or increase other fees to make up for the revenue,” she said.
Trustees Joseph Fitzgerald and Alex Gallegos were the first to speak out against the grocery tax.
“We’re taxed enough as it is by Cook County and the state, and, at this time, it wouldn’t be the most appropriate route,” Fitzgerald said. “If it’s something that needs to be addressed later on in other fiscal years, we can talk about it at that time.”
Trustee Cristin Evans pushed back on the assertion that Riverside would have to make compromises elsewhere to recover the lost revenue.
“I understand that if we decide not to pursue an ordinance, then we’ll be short $50,000,” she said, “but I’m wondering if there are other areas of revenue this year that came up ahead of what we expected. Do we know for sure what the budget is for next year? I’m not comfortable saying we’re going to have to increase fees or decrease services with just this one decision without having actual figures or data.”
Village Manager Jessica Frances said some of the village’s revenues this year have been “quite volatile,” making it difficult to predict whether Riverside could come out ahead and afford the loss of the grocery tax.
“We are close to being on target with budget but always recognizing that our margin between the revenues that we receive and our expenditures is pretty close,” she said. “There are a lot of different considerations at play, so I can’t provide you a very concrete answer at this exact moment until we’ve reviewed more of these data points.”
Like Whitehead in Brookfield, Trustee Elizabeth Kos called the tax “regressive.”
“It hits our residents who are lower-income more than it hurts our residents who are higher-income on food. This is not a luxury item,” she said. “I would rather look at some other places to raise fees than impose this tax at this time.”
Trustee Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga said she found the tax’s regressive nature to be “the most disturbing piece.”
“With our [Cross-Community Climate Collaborative] efforts and our emphasis on trying to provide a discussion of equity every time we consider a new proposal or policy, I think that, even though all of our neighboring communities are seemingly jumping on the ‘Let’s keep the tax’ bandwagon, I think we owe it to the effort to be the outlier,” she said.
Evans suggested the lack of the tax in Riverside could even draw people from outside the village to shop at Riverside Foods if they don’t want to pay it in their own municipality.
The board agreed to reconsider the tax next year to possibly go into effect starting in 2027.
