Sales Tax Hike Approved By Naperville City Council

NAPERVILLE, IL — Naperville officials approved an increase to the city's sales tax in a near-unanimous vote Tuesday. The move, which goes into effect July 1, will increase sales tax in Naperville by .25%, which means shoppers will pay a total of 7.75% on purchases.

Before the vote, Rachel Mayer, the city's finance director went over Naperville's financial forecast, noting that the state had imposed a 2% administrative fee on home rule sales tax. Mayer said this fee would result in an annual reduction of $1.4 million in income tax revenue for the city.

Naperville's decision to up the home rule sales tax was partially motivated by an effort to avoid increasing property taxes to make up this gap. Mayor Steve Chirico said that a sales tax increase would be "much kinder to people who are on fixed incomes" than a property tax increase.

Many council members who voted in favor of the sales tax increase noted that half of the resulting revenue would come from Naperville residents and the remainder would come from shoppers visiting from other towns.

Councilman Joseph Krummen, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said he would prefer to raise property taxes instead of imposing a flat levy. Krummen asserted that this would help the city take advantage of increasing property values in Naperville.

Krummen said he felt the home rule sales tax increase "overtaxes" and that "assets are growing" in a way that would make a property tax increase more favorable.

Still, Mayer and Chirico hinted that a property tax increase next year would be inevitable."There's high probability that there will have to be a property tax increase based on the current data," Mayer said.

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