$87K Tax Payment To Northbrook Chamber To Be Investigated

NORTHBROOK, IL — After local labor activists complained that the village's practice of granting 10 percent of its hotel tax revenue to the Chamber of Commerce creates a conflict of interest, Village President Sandy Frum told the Northbrook Star she is "curious" to see how much other towns provide to their local chambers of commerce ahead of the budgeting process next spring.

Those who have been lobbying the village to adopt Cook County's minimum wage and sick leave regulations (which trustees opted out of in May) have argued that the payments of public funds to support the private, membership-based lobbying group effectively spent $87,000 of taxpayer money to lobby against higher wages for workers in Northbrook.

A past president of Northbrook Chamber of Commerce explained to the Star the arrangement dates back to the implementation of a hospitality tax in the 1990's. Local hotels promised not to fight the tax as long as the chamber received 10 percent of the money it brought in.

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