Terry D'Arcy Makes Sure Joliet Citizens Pay Higher Grocery Taxes In 2026 After 5 To 4 Vote

JOLIET, IL — Although the state of Illinois is ending the 1 percent grocery tax come January, Mayor Terry D'Arcy and his four Joliet City Council supporters agreed that Joliet citizens should continue to pay more taxes on their groceries in order to help the city generate more revenue next year.

At the last Council meeting, the vote was 5 to 4. Council members Larry Hug, Joe Clement, Jan Quillman and new member Juan Moreno voted against Joliet adopting the 1 percent grocery tax. But Mayor D'Arcy cast the tie-breaking vote to make sure the state's grocery tax would be replaced with a local tax.

As a result, come January, Joliet will continue collecting the grocery tax revenue of 1 percent. Voting for the grocery tax were D'Arcy and Council members Pat Mudron, Sherri Reardon, Suzanna Ibarra and Cesar Cardenas.

Prior to casting his vote, Mayor D'Arcy shared the following comments with the Council.

"I Don't Want To Get Into Cutting Jobs And All Of That"

"You know, I struggled with this decision as well," D'Arcy announced. "We're in the middle of our budget process right now and the state has given us until October 1st to continue this, and if we don't, then January 1 it goes away.

"It's really hard to do because we haven't structured our budget fully yet and I know that $3.7 million is not a large part of our budget, but we're in the middle of finishing up a few of our collective bargaining agreements. We don't know where a few of those are going to end up, most of them are done.

"We know that the legacy insurance plan that was set up in 2016 that ends in 2030 will increase our insurance costs, this year was it $5 million? ... So, we do have to be prudent and judicial about getting our budget balanced and making sure we're healthy there," D'Arcy explained. "So, we looked at some other alternative ideas, which would be either, I don't want to get into cutting jobs and all that. Other cities are doing some quarter-point sales tax increases, which, that's $5.7 million, that's almost like not the right way to go either and that takes more money out of the pockets of folks that live here.

"So, it's a difficult decision," D'Arcy reflected. "One we have to make by October 1st. That's all I've got to say about this one."

Councilwoman Quillman Has Different Perspective

Prior to her vote, Councilwoman Jan Quillman told everyone she was voting against the Joliet 1 percent grocery tax. Quillman said a lot of residents are struggling and living paycheck to paycheck.

"I, too, had hoped that we could give some respite to our constituents even though it's only 1 percent, but like (Larry Hug) said, it adds up," Quillman remarked. "Some people can say it's a dollar on $100 worth of groceries, but if you can afford $100 worth of groceries. A lot of people can't afford that on fixed incomes and people that don't get raises every year.

"They are debating on whether they should take medicine or buy food. and if they try to do both, they're cutting their medicines in half so that they can keep going because they don't have enough money. Every penny counts when you don't have a lot of money coming in."

Quillman pointed out how NICOR and ComEd are raising gas and utility prices as well.

"And I went and gave the same speech to NICOR when they were down at Bicentennial Park a couple months ago," Quillman explained. "And people are just barely getting by right now. Inflation on fruit and vegetables is 2.7 percent. Everything is going up. Food keeps going up and to have to make a decision whether you eat or take your medicine, this is not acceptable ... So, again, I was hoping that we could give some respite. The tax levy went up, the increase in water bills went up, then there was that $3.5 million library loan that I had asked to wait, but, no, no, no, it had to be done right away. Twenty-year loan. I never heard of such a thing. So, and the gasoline tax and the cost of everything is just going up so I'm sorry, these are my thoughts ... so I too cannot support that. Sorry, mayor."

Larry Hug Makes It Clear 'He Won't Support This'

Hug also voted against the grocery tax for Joliet.

"Look, it's like we've seen a unicorn. The state of Illinois actually did something to lower a tax no matter how little it is," Hug pointed out. "How I look at this, and yes, it's city tax revenues that are going to go down $3.7 million .... it's not about the $50, or $100, $150 or $200 per household per year. That's not huge, OK? I did some simple math, and I think that the per person savings would be higher if you just take the $3.7 million and divide it by the 150,000 residents, comes out to about $25 or $30 per person.

"So, if you're a retired couple, that's $50 per year. That's a couple of months of co-pay on your medicine," Hug remarked. "If you're a family of six, you're between $150 and $200 per year. And again, the individual savings at $25 per person, on average, is not going to turn anybody's budget upside down one way or the other, but here's what I do find as an insurance agent. It happened again today. People call up and say my insurance, my home insurance, my auto insurance, just went up. Can you quote me, can you quote them, and you say I can save you about $150 a year on your house let's do it. That $150 makes a difference to that 60 percent, 70 percent of Americans because what they're doing is going through their home budget with a fine-tooth comb. They're saying, where can we save $150 here, $200 there, $300 there? Before you know it, you're saving $1,500 to $2,000."

Hug also wanted everyone to know, "We're not going to be cutting police and fire. That's a scare tactic for anybody to say that. We're not going to be doing that. Even when we had the great collapse of 2010, here as a city, from 2006 to 2010, that was the last thing we looked at ... nobody up here is going to be looking to cut police. We have added quite a few new jobs since 2022 that are non-police or non-fire, a couple that were public works and hopefully we have a couple extra plows on the streets, so, no, there's other jobs we can look at."

Additionally, Hug said the Council just had a finance committee meeting and "for the first seven months of this year, we are $16 million up on revenues into the city over the first seven months of last year," Hug revealed. "If the rest of the year drops back down and it's stagnant, we'll finish the year $16 million ahead."

Ibarra Votes In Favor Of Grocery Tax

First-term Councilwoman Suzanna Ibarra, who took office after beating incumbent Terry Morris, helped Mayor D'Arcy maintain the grocery tax for the citizens of Joliet.

"I just want to say I am not at all pro-tax, I feel like in the state of Illinois, we are taxed to death, but I will say this, that I'm unhappy with our State Legislature and our governor putting us in this position. It's that easy to wave the magic wand when it's someone else's money, which, it's the city of Joliet's, in our coffers. We're in the middle of a billion-dollar water project. We are running out of water for 30 years before this city decided to do something about it. Now we're faced with this ... water project so while I am not at all pro-tax whatsoever, I'm mad by the state legislatures putting us in this position to be the bad guy, because we'd lose 15 positions that are absolutely necessary by foregoing this tax, so those are my comments, thank you."

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