Sales Tax Rollback
Current Sales Tax Rollback Petition Signature Count 1,290 signatures of which 650+ are Schaumburg residents.
Schaumburg, we have a sales tax problem!
Schaumburg’s restaurant patrons pay the highest sales tax in the history of the nation at 12%.
Schaumburg’s retail patrons pay the second highest sales tax in the country at 10%. Second only to Chicago.
Schaumburg’s sales taxes are way too expensive. Our sky high 10% retail sales tax is second only to the City of Chicago nationally. Apparently, Schaumburg’s Village Board wasn’t satisfied at the fact that we had the 2nd highest sales taxes in the nation. The Village Board of Schaumburg continues to saddle our restaurant customers with an additional 2% sales tax, for a total of 12% sales taxes on liquor, food, and beverages in the restaurants of Schaumburg.
What do we do about it?
The citizens of Schaumburg must act before high taxes crush our local economy even more. The Schaumburg Freedom Coalition is circulating a petition to reduce local home rule sales taxes. On this petition, we propose reducing Schaumburg’s restaurant sales tax from 12% to 9% and the general retail sales tax from 10% to 9%.
First, we will circulate a petition to be signed by Schaumburg’s residents, workers, and shoppers to be submitted to Mayor Al Larson & the Village Board. This is an advisory petition where we get thousands of signatures from our fellow citizens to support a sales tax rollback and attempt to persuade Mayor Larson and the Village Board to voluntarily reduce sales taxes.
How much money will this save the local economy?
The tax savings will be $29-$30 Million per year & 1,000’s of new jobs will be created.
How did we get these record high taxes in the first place?
While most everyone knows the story behind the Cook County Board sales tax hikes, many local citizens have no idea that the Village Board of Schaumburg has hiked the local portion of the sales tax too. In 1990 (a 0.5% hike) and again in 2003 (a 2nd 0.5% hike), the Village Board of Schaumburg raised retail sales and now assesses a 1% sales tax on top of the 1% it already received from the State of Illinois.
Additionally, in 1989, the Village of Schaumburg enacted a 2% sales tax on the purchase price of alcoholic liquor, food, and beverage. This 2% is added on top of all other existing retail taxes including state, county, and local.
Will Mayor Larson & the Village Board respond to the petition & public pressure and reduce sales taxes?
Nothing is impossible but judging from recent history we will get a lot of resistance from Mayor Larson and the Village Board of Schaumburg.
On April 7, 2009, an astonishing 91% of Schaumburg citizens voted to reduce the sales tax rate locally by 1% on an advisory referendum. Instead of recognizing the Schaumburg citizens and relieving some of the heavy tax burden, the Schaumburg, Village Trustees voted to do the opposite and raise property taxes by the largest amount in Village history ($120 million) only 7 days later. So much for Schaumburg’s leaders listening to the citizens.
On the other hand, the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition recently capped an aggressive 9 month campaign to get Schaumburg’s red light cameras shut off and we won! The Daily Herald cited our efforts recently stating “During this period, the Village received about 50 negative phone calls, letters, and e-mails.” Public influence can make a difference with Mayor Larson and the Village Board.
Did the Village of Schaumburg ask the people first before they imposed these taxes?
No, not in any of these 3 sales tax hikes did the Village seek approval through ballot referendum. Mayor Larson and the Village Board chose to exercise their Home Rule power over the citizens and allow the people no referendum voice on voting these proposed tax hikes either up or down.
The Village has passed a number of other tax hikes in recent years too. These include an: Amusement Tax, Telecommunications Tax, Hotel Tax, Real Estate Transfer Tax, and Property Tax increases over the past 20 years. In not a single instance of these passed tax increases did the Village Board allow for an input through voter referendum.
Recently the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition specifically asked Mayor Larson and the Village Board to put the recent $120 Million property tax proposal on the ballot but they flat out refused the idea.
Why does the Village of Schaumburg need all of these taxes?
In our opinion they do not need all of these taxes. In fact, prior to 1989 Schaumburg had no Village imposed sales taxes of any kind, but Mayor Larson & the Village Board have a major spending problem. Over the last 15 years the Village of Schaumburg has greatly expanded the size and scope of government with mega projects such as taking ownership of a money-losing airport, building a baseball stadium knowing no MLB affiliated team could ever play there, and the $243 Million expenditure for a convention center & hotel that is losing $15.7 million dollars per year.
Once again, in all three instances, Mayor Larson and the Village Board did not seek voter input through voter referendum. Not even when the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition specifically asked for a voter referendum for an airport expansion proposal.
Since 2005, Village expenditures have exploded from a modest $118.5 Million per year to $197.3 Million in 2008, much of it due to corporate welfare. A 66% increase in just 3 short years.
If expenditure growth was limited to population growth + inflation we’d already be able to reduce the sales taxes to 9% without making any cuts in government.
What can we do to cut the sales taxes now?
Plenty, go to www.schaumburgfreedom.com for ideas and sign up for our group on Facebook & Twitter to stay informed about meetings and volunteer opportunities. Additionally, there are many volunteer opportunities to do on your own.
- Get as many of your friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors to sign the petition and ask them to circulate the petition as well.
- Write letters to the editor. Daily Herald, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times are the 3 major papers locally
- Join us for the Septemberfest Parade or volunteer to help out at our booth
- Call the Village or send Mayor Larson and the Village trustees an e-mail
- Donate to the Sales Tax Rollback Campaign at the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition so we can further develop an organization that will fight to rid us of the highest sales taxes in the U.S.
Now that we are in this mess what do we do to responsibly bring taxes down?
First and foremost, we need to get rid of the big corporate welfare business-type activity projects. Privatizing and selling the Convention Center & Hotel ($9 Million in annual savings), Schaumburg Airport ($1.5 Million), and the Baseball Stadium ($500K) will result in a taxpayer savings of $11 Million per year.
Selling these assets will bring a financial windfall to the Village of Schaumburg which we should use to pay down existing debt. Saving on the principle and interest payments on this debt would save us an additional $5 million dollars per year.
The entire Village of Schaumburg budget should undergo an extensive forensic audit. One area we believe is of great concern is government employee compensation. From 2005 to 2008 there was an explosion in number of Village employees making over $100,000. The increase from 30 employees (in 2005) to 110 employees (2008) is an alarming 266% increase in the number of $100k employees.
The Schaumburg Freedom Coalition finds that a 10% cut in the number of Village employees and a 10% pay cut for all Village employees would result in a savings of an additional $15 Million.
Schaumburg Sales Tax Rollback Petition (PDF Document) Letter Sized
Schaumburg Sales Tax Rollback Petition (PDF Document) Legal Sized
