Alton Advances Measure To Keep Grocery Tax

City of Alton - Committee of the Whole Meeting

ALTON – A resolution to replace an expiring state grocery sales tax with a locally collected grocery tax is on its way to the Alton City Council.

A resolution to create an ordinance imposing a 1% sales tax on groceries and grocery “services” was approved 5-2 at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting. Voting against the resolution were Ward 1 Alderman Chris Bohn and Ward 3 Alderman Michael Velloff.

The State of Illinois has imposed a 1% sales tax on groceries since 1990, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to local municipalities. To offset significant revenue losses when the state grocery tax expires in 2026, the Illinois General Assembly has allowed each municipality to replace the state tax with local 1% sales taxes on groceries.

While difficult to determine due to the state combining grocery and general sales tax figures, it was estimated that allowing the grocery sales tax to expire would result in an annual loss of $400,000 for the City of Alton. Imposing this local grocery sales tax would not cause grocery prices to rise, as it would simply replace an existing tax.

Bohn asked if the city could tax something other than groceries, such as liquor or tobacco products, but Mayor David Goins said sales tax revenues on those items are handled separately. Ward 6 Alderman John Meehan asked if other municipalities have voted to replace the grocery tax – many local communities have already done so, including Jerseyville, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon and Wood River.

With the committee’s approval, the resolution now goes to the Alton City Council for final approval this Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. Follow the discussion and vote on this and other agenda items live on Riverbender.com/video/live.

A full recording of the June 9, 2025 Alton Committee of the Whole meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.

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