This week, South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association members and staff traveled to Springfield to participate in the Illinois Municipal League’s annual Lobby Day on April 17. Over the course of two days, SSMMA officials from Alsip, Blue Island, Burnham, Calumet Park, Country Club Hills, Dixmoor, Dolton, Glenwood, Harvey, Hazel Crest, Lansing, Markham, Matteson, Orland Park, Park Forest, Richton Park, Robbins, Sauk Village, South Holland, Steger, and University Park met with their State Senators and State Representatives to impart their concerns about pending legislation and budget proposals that negatively impact community resources and quality of life.
As part of a small group of mayors invited to sit down with Governor Pritzker, SSMMA Legislative Committee Chairman Rick Reinbold (Mayor, Richton Park) and Past Chairman Vernard Alsberry, Jr. (Mayor, Hazel Crest) were able to express opposition to the Governor’s proposed elimination of the 1% sales tax on groceries, and express concerns about any Tier II pension benefits expansion as they would both have an immediate and significant impact on all 1,294 municipalities throughout Illinois. They also conveyed to the Governor that communities should receive the 10% local share of state income tax dollars that were pledged to them decades ago. Those Local Government Distributive Funds, known as LGDF, could be used to pay down pensions, maintain public services, or tackle needed projects like lead service line replacement, clean water systems upgrades, sewers, sidewalks, transportation infrastructure, broadband, parks, and other unmet needs.
During the meeting with Governor Pritzker, Mayor Reinbold spoke about the elimination of the 1% sales tax on groceries, saying “The proposed elimination would have an immediate impact on municipalities, while the savings to individual households is less than a few dollars a month. Across the south suburbs, eliminating the 1% sales tax means that more than $20 million dollars no longer comes to communities— some of the most distressed in Illinois— which impacts our ability to deliver essential services to residents and businesses”.
Reinbold also flagged an unintended consequence of the proposed Grocery Tax elimination was the impact to sales tax revenue sharing agreements which many municipalities have utilized as an inducement to attract full-service grocery stores to their community. Reinbold stated, “Eliminating the grocery sales tax could actually exacerbate food deserts throughout Illinois as communities would no longer have the sales tax sharing tool to attract a grocery store or, potentially keep them if sales tax agreements cannot be met”.
Another important activity for SSMMA leaders was attendance and participation in a Subject Matter Hearing convened by IL House of Representative Cities and Villages Committee Chairman Anthony DeLuca. Testifying to a packed house after a two-hour delay due to the House’s Third Reading bill schedule, IML and municipal representatives presented on municipal governance and revenue priorities which included the topics of LGDF, pensions, grocery tax, and unfunded mandates and preemption impact to local communities.
Representing Illinois’ municipalities regarding unfunded mandates and preemption of municipal authority was Anthony Burton, village administrator for the Village of Matteson, who delivered the testimony of Village President and SSMMA Vice President Sheila Chalmers-Currin who was called away suddenly due to a family emergency. Mr. Burton’s overarching message to members of the General Assembly: unfunded mandates present an overwhelming financial and administrative challenge for municipal governments each year—often contributing to the growing tax burden in Illinois. Read his full testimony
here and see Lobby Day/Springfield photos
here.
SSMMA wants to express our appreciation to all of our members that traveled to Springfield to be advocates for their community and the region. We want to also convey our heartfelt sympathy to Village President Sheila Chalmers-Currin on her loss of her sister. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers.