The elimination of Illinois’ state grocery tax as part of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s $53.1 billion budget for 2025 is expected to be a blow to the finances of many local municipalities. Some villages, like Forest Park, could lose up to $400,000 per year or even more, but for Riverside and Brookfield, the consequences aren’t looking as dire.
Riverside stands to lose about $45,000 annually from the elimination of the tax, Finance Director Yvette Zavala confirmed in an email to the Landmark. Similarly, Brookfield stands to lose about $50,000 each year, Finance Director Doug Cooper said in a phone interview.
Revenue from the statewide 1% tax on groceries was distributed to local municipalities. The cut takes effect Jan. 1, 2026.
Cooper said the removal of the tax won’t affect Brookfield’s finances “to a great extent.”
“Brookfield has one grocery store, and that’s Tischler’s,” he said. “We estimated the total amount of lost revenue that they eliminate [with] the 1% percent grocery tax would be about $50,000.”
Cooper said Brookfield budgets each year for “well over $1 million” in sales tax revenue.
“It’s a small percentage, and we hope to make it up in other ways, but, I mean, it’s not going to have a major effect on us,” he said.
Like Brookfield, Riverside has only one grocery store, Riverside Foods.
Before the passage of Pritzker’s budget last week, Illinois was one of 13 states that taxed grocery sales. Pritzker had proposed eliminating the grocery tax as a way to save money for families. Dropping the 1% tax saves Illinois shoppers $1 for every $100 of groceries that they buy.
“I don’t think there’s any benefit to getting rid of it,” said Maria Maxham, Forest Park’s commissioner of accounts and finance, of the tax. “It’s obviously going to save people who grocery shop — which is everybody — money,” but the amount, she added, is fairly insignificant.
“It tends to have a smaller impact on a person buying $100 worth of groceries than it does on a municipality as a whole that’s losing out on a significant chunk of money that they use for all kinds of different things,” Maxham said.
While eliminating the state tax on groceries, the recently approved state budget also allows all municipalities to impose their own local grocery tax.
