Dupage Policy Journal

Congressional candidate Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) is warning Chicago bureaucrats that the city's loss can be DuPage County’s gain.

“Keep it up Chicago – DuPage and surrounding counties would be happy to serve people at a reasonable cost,” Ives recently posted on Facebook to news that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has proposed doubling the tax on food and drinks at city restaurants as part of her new budget plan and ongoing effort to close an $838 million budget deficit.

With Lightfoot predicting that raising the tax to 0.5 percent could raise as much as $20 million annually, the new levy is set to go into effect as soon as Jan.1 if approved by city aldermen.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, Chicago residents already pay the highest general sales tax in the U.S. at 10.25 percent, leaving Ives to further predict that many of them will view any additional taxes as a slap in the face.

“DuPage is open for business and we have lots of great restaurants,” wrote Ives, presently challenging incumbent Congressman Sean Casten (D-Downers Grove) in the 6th Congressional District.   

The restaurant hike proposal comes on the heels of Lightfoot laying out plans for a $40 million ride-share tax hike. She has also expressed an interest in hiking parking meter rates and perhaps even property tax rates again as part of a master plan.

In the meantime, the city’s languishing pension debt continues to cripple the state, with at least four city pension funds now reported to be as much as $27 billion in debt. Overall, taxpayers in Chicago are now responsible for $46 billion in public pension debt with payments expected to climb by as much $1 billion during the next four years.