Coalition opposes Chicago alcohol tax hike
[December 16, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – As Chicago officials aim to replace lost revenue
from the state of Illinois’ repealed grocery tax, producers and industry
advocates say a proposed tax hike on alcohol would punish retailers and
consumers.
A group of Chicago aldermen proposed a 29% increase in the city’s sales
tax on retail alcohol sales. The tax was included in the council
members’ budget alternative to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s head tax on
employers.
Hospitality Business Association of Chicago Managing Director Pat Doerr
said consumers are stressed by state and local taxes.
“Stressed consumers don’t go out. They cut back spending,” Doerr said.
“I can’t imagine if you’re a stressed consumer and all of a sudden
you’re hearing and learning that we could potentially be at 13.5% on
your grocery cart purchase of beer, wine or spirits that that’s going to
make you want to go out and buy more.”
Doerr said business owners won’t be able to pay their property tax bills
when customers flee to the suburbs.
“It will punish all Chicago retailers, not balance the budget,” Doerr
said.
City officials have been trying to address a projected deficit of more
than $1 billion after Johnson said he would not balance the budget “on
the backs of working people.”
Doerr said, as far as he knew, the city did not ask for a longer
phaseout of the grocery tax repeal by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the General
Assembly.
“They knew that grocery tax was going away and there was no chance of
passing it at city council, and now we’re the life preserver for that
lack of foresight,” Doerr said. “That’s not fair to our small
independents.”
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KOVAL Distillery owner Sonat Birnecker Hart said the tax would
affect a lot of local businesses.
“And I can tell you who it will also affect: local farms that are
not going to be able to provide us with the grain that they’re
growing, because we’re going to have to cut back, because this is
going to affect our sales,” Birnecker Hart said.
Birnecker Hart said some distillers have already scaled back, left
the city or closed.
Doerr said Chicago already has by far the highest alcohol taxes in
the Midwest.
“For $30, it’s an extra dollar,” Doerr said of the new tax proposal.
Doerr suggested that aldermen could consider regulating and taxing
hemp instead, although a council committee recently followed the
federal government’s lead by advancing an ordinance to ban most hemp
sales in the city.
Johnson spoke before a meeting he had scheduled with a group of
aldermen on Monday. The mayor said his administration had concerns
about the proposed alcohol tax and did not include it in his budget
plan.
The city council adjourned quickly Monday after the body did not
have enough members present to have a quorum. The council is
scheduled to meet Tuesday and three additional times before the Dec.
31 deadline to pass a budget.
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