A few cities have opted to keep the grocery tax in place. Oglesby might not be one of them.

Monday, the Oglesby City Council agreed, without a vote, to not keep the 1% grocery tax in place after it sunsets Jan. 1 – at least not yet. The council wouldn’t rule out the possibility of reinstating the tax in the future.

As previously reported, the state dropped the 1% rate but gave municipalities the option of implementing it locally to boost city revenues. Utica is among the local communities to do so.

But Oglesby officials are, for now, leaning against it.

“My recommendation personally is to hold off on that,” Commissioner Austin Cullinan said.

Cullinan said Oglesby sales taxes are “relatively strong,” enabling the city to forgo extending the grocery tax, and “I don’t want to give the impression we’re trying to nickel and dime people.”

Mayor Jason Curran agreed. He pointed out the city doesn’t have a supermarket and thinks dropping the 1% rate would create a kind of discount should the city ever acquire one.

“If we ever get a grocery store in here,” Curran said, “I’d like to have some competitive edge.”