After strong pressure from the public, the Cook County penny-an-ounce sweetened beverage tax has been repealed.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was not pleased and now wonders how the county’s budget will be balanced without the projected revenue from the tax.
“Over the next six weeks before the end of the fiscal year, we’re going to have to work very closely with our separately elected officials and our commissioners to present a balanced budget and I can’t say anything is off the table,” Preckwinkle said.
Local residents found this tax to be excessive and are just plain tired of paying more and more on whatever governing bodies deem as taxable.
George Meyer was ecstatic when he learned that the tax had been repealed. “Maybe now the county can find ways to make cuts that should have been made from the get-go. There is too much wasteful spending not only in the county, but in all governing bodies in the state, he said.”
Taxpayers want to know where all their tax money is going. The common perception is that cuts need to be made. County residents want to see less spending, better services, and more accountability.
The sweetened beverage tax was too much. According to a poll conducted by the Illinois Manufacturer’s Association, 87 percent of respondents opposed the beverage tax.
“We are already paying entirely too high of taxes, especially on real estate. I feel that the public’s outcry over this beverage tax is a good thing,” said Meyer.
Retailers outside of Cook County found themselves with more customers shopping for sweetened beverages. That windfall in areas like the Kane County sections of Elgin will now be missing those extra shoppers. The additional tax revenues collected in the collar counties on sweetened beverages will now end.
The county enacted the tax under the guise of improving children’s health, but where was the data showing that it, indeed, would do that?
What other ways is the county going to come up with to make up for the projected budget deficit? Will they look again to residents on another unpopular, burdensome tax?
Linda McDaniel-Hale is a Fox Valley resident who offers opinions on local topics.
