Sales tax hike to hit Cook, collar counties on Aug. 1

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Consumers in six Illinois counties will be soon be paying higher sales taxes.

Transit funding legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last December provided for the 0.25% increase to take effect on Aug. 1 in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.

The tax hike is projected to generate $478 million a year as part of the $1.5 billion in annual transit funding provided in Senate Bill 2111.

State Rep. Steven Reick, R-Woodstock, said suburban taxpayers are bailing out the Chicago Transit Authority.

“We’re giving them a lifeline of money that we’re not getting anything in return for,” Reick said.

The Center Square asked Reick if higher taxes might drive people out of the area.

“Here in McHenry County, we’re obviously on the border with Wisconsin. I think people are going to make economic choices to drive up to Walworth, in my case, to buy gas and things like that,” Reick said.

SB 2111 also gave the Illinois Tollway Board the power to raise tolls.

Before the bill passed, state Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva, said he appreciated the desire for a state-of-the-art mass transit system.

“I don’t know how, though, we justify spending more money than we need after $2 billion of tax increases in the last few years,” Ugaste said.

The west suburban Republican noted that the region’s transit fiscal cliff was revised downward well before the tax legislation was called to the floor.

“The RTA came to us in October after telling us for a year that they needed $771 million and said, ‘oh by the way, we can get by with about $230 million,’” Ugaste said.

Ugaste said spending more money than necessary is not the right answer.

In McHenry County, Reick said most regularly-scheduled Pace buses run empty.

“If we could work out an intergovernmental agreement with Metra to keep rail service coming out here to McHenry County, I wouldn’t have a problem if our county board put a referendum on the ballot to get us out of this thing completely,” Reick said.