MARION – As the state of Illinois gets ready to sunset the 1 percent grocery tax on Dec. 31, the Marion City Council unanimously passed an ordinance at Monday night’s meeting to implement a municipal grocery retailers’ occupation tax and a municipal grocery service occupation tax for the city.
Marion Mayor Mike Absher reassures residents that this is not a tax increase and what you pay for groceries on Dec. 31 will be the same on Jan. 1 of next year.
Without this tax, the mayor says the city would lose anywhere from $1.8 to $2.2 million in revenue.
Marion Chief of Staff Cody Moake says ironically, the state will continue to collect the tax from retailers and remit those sales to the city.
Moake says he doesn’t believe there is a collection fee, so the state is continuing to do the same work they were doing for free, but it’s now the city levying the tax not the state.
Governor JB Pritzker signed a provision into law last August removing the grocery tax.
It allows cities and counties to levy their own 1 percent grocery tax by passing an ordinance rather than needing a referendum. It also gives non-home rule municipalities the authority to impose sales taxes by up to 1 percent without a referendum.
