{"id":2217198,"date":"2024-04-10T08:01:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pritzkers-grocery-tax-plan-is-zero-benefit-to-taxpayers-gop-senator-says\/"},"modified":"2024-04-10T08:05:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:05:03","slug":"pritzkers-grocery-tax-plan-is-zero-benefit-to-taxpayers-gop-senator-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pritzkers-grocery-tax-plan-is-zero-benefit-to-taxpayers-gop-senator-says\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP senator criticizes Pritzker&#8217;s grocery tax proposal as offering no benefits to taxpayers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpritzkers-grocery-tax-plan-is-zero-benefit-to-taxpayers-gop-senator-says%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2217198&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The\u2063 ongoing debate regarding the elimination\u2063 of\u2062 Illinois&#8217;\u200c 1% grocery tax \u2062involves Republicans proposing their plan. In \u200dresponse to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-reasons-making-taxpayers-pay-off-student-loans-is-a-rotten-idea\/\" title=\"5 Reasons Making Taxpayers Pay Off Student Loans Is A Rotten Idea\">high inflation<\/a>, the tax was removed for a year \u200din 2022. Governor J.B. Pritzker aims to\u200d abolish it entirely this year, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-spike-in-florida-coronavirus-cases-despite-no-mask-mandate\/\" title=\"No Spike in Florida Coronavirus Cases Despite No Mask Mandate\">local governments<\/a>\u200c anticipate a potential $375 million loss. Pritzker suggests allowing communities to reinstate the\u200d tax if desired,\u2064 though he opposes taxing food. State Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, highlights concerns voiced by the governor and Democrats in\u200b 2022.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2013 The conflict over how to address getting rid of Illinois\u2019 1% grocery tax continues with Republicans saying their plan should be considered.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, as a way to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-reserve-releases-plan-to-more-urgently-address-high-inflation\/\" title=\"Federal Reserve Releases Plan To More Urgently Address High Inflation\">address high inflation<\/a>, the legislature zeroed out the 1% grocery tax for 12 months. This year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants to get rid of it altogether, but local governments say that could mean a $375 million hit. Tuesday, Pritzker laid out his plan to cover that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be brought up in the General Assembly, the ability for communities to reimpose that tax if they want to,\u201d Pritzker said. \u201cI would not suggest it. I think that it is not proper to be taxing food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>State Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, said the governor and Democrats were concerned in 2022 about how to backfill the lost revenue to local governments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThree-hundred and twenty-three million dollars is a significant amount of money, it\u2019s police officers, it\u2019s firefighters, it\u2019s public works processes for municipalities,\u201d DeWitte told The Center Square.<\/p>\n<p>DeWitte said the governor and Democrats are ignoring his bill to make up for the lost local revenue with their withheld share of the state\u2019s income tax through the Local Government Distributive Fund.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s basically shifting the blame,\u201d DeWitte said. \u201cThere\u2019s zero benefit to taxpayers when the governor eliminates the grocery tax and then asks municipal governments to reapply it on the other side of the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Legislators have until the end of May to pass a spending plan, including deciding what to do with the grocery tax.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Pritzker announced the next leg of his plan in Chicago to continue his proposed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chicago-mayor-wants-government-owned-grocery-store\/\" title=\"Chicago Mayor Calls for Publicly-Owned Grocery Store\">grocery initiative<\/a>. The overall program is expected to cost Illinois taxpayers $20 million in the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p>The New Stores in Food Deserts Program announced Tuesday will offer competitive grants to encourage new grocery stores in USDA-defined food deserts.<\/p>\n<p>Pritzker said the initiative isn\u2019t meant to address higher grocery bills, but to prop up struggling grocers.<\/p>\n<p>He argued the idea is working in places like Kansas. But, if the initiative isn\u2019t working in Illinois, Pritzker said they may end it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd if it isn\u2019t working, then we\u2019ll probably pull back. When it does work, I think we\u2019ll probably go all in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMake sure that we\u2019re not feeding into a losing proposition for the state and its taxpayers, so it isn\u2019t the job of the state to continually support something that doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Pritzker said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>DeWitte said he does see some merit in the grocery initiative to address areas in both rural and urban areas where it\u2019s more difficult to maintain a grocery store with quality foods for consumers.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The debate on eliminating Illinois&#8217; 1% grocery tax persists, with Republicans advocating for their proposal. In 2022, the legislature removed the tax for a year to combat inflation. Governor J.B. Pritzker aims to eliminate the tax this year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3048,"featured_media":2217199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24019782950877-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2217198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24019782950877-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3048"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2217198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2217199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2217198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2217198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2217198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}