Batavia shoppers won’t get reprieve from grocery tax, despite state repeal

Illinois will eliminate a statewide 1% sales tax at grocery stores on Jan. 1, 2026, but Batavia shoppers won’t see a change on their receipts.

Batavia is among the more than 100 municipalities in Illinois that have decided to impose a local grocery tax next year in response to the state’s decision last spring to eliminate the tax after 2025.

Batavia City Council approved an ordinance creating an identical 1% grocery tax beginning in 2026 in an unanimous vote at their May 5 meeting.

Batavia City Administrator Laura Newman introduced the item at an April 29 Committee of the Whole meeting, where she said the elimination of the tax would mean an annual reduction of about $1.2 million in revenue.

“Not implementing this would mean that we need to either cut expenses or find an alternate revenue source,” Newman said.

Municipalities have until Oct. 1 to approve their own ordinances, if they wish to implement the tax by the first of next year.

When eliminating the tax, Gov. JB Pritzker gave every municipality in Illinois the option to implement their own grocery tax and even provided municipalities with sample ordinances. Each local tax enacted will be identical to the state tax, as the language in the municipal ordinances mirrors the state statute.

Maura Kownacki, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Revenue, said as of May 5, 173 municipalities have passed their own grocery tax ordinances.

Other Kane County municipalities including Algonquin, Sugar Grove, South Elgin, North Aurora and Elburn have already passed the same ordinance, while St. Charles and Geneva are among several still mulling over the decision.