Sales Tax Lowered, But Not in Algonquin, Crystal Lake, Lake in the Hills and McHenry

A quarter of a penny per dollar of purchases is how much the Cook County Board lowered its sales tax.

A Home Rule unit capable of raising taxes without a referendum, Cook County, lowered its sales tax by a quarter of one percentage point today.

That doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t, but trend lines are sometimes important.

The rate is still 8.25% in unincorporated areas. And that doesn’t add in Chicago’s. When one does, the rate is 10.75% in the Downtown area.

I can’t find any of the municipalities in McHenry County that followed suit.

All held their Home Rule Sales Taxes at the rates to which they had been previously raised.

Algonquin’s, Lake in the Hill’s and Crystal Lake’s are at 1.75%.

McHenry’s are at 1.5%.

Hoping for enough population growth to be able to raise taxes without a referendum are Huntley and Woodstock.

Look how close the two towns are to being able to hike constituent taxes, according to the 2010 Census:

  • Huntley – 24,291
  • Woodstock – 24,658

If they reach 25,000 people in a special census, their governing boards can hike sales taxes over the 1% allowed by state law.

They can join the “We hike sales taxes 75%” Club, just as Algonquin, Crystal Lake and Lake in the Hills have.


Comments

Sales Tax Lowered, But Not in Algonquin, Crystal Lake, Lake in the Hills and McHenry — 2 Comments

  1. I shop in Huntley and Woodstock to save on taxes as they are equally as close to my home as the other “Big 3”.

    If they raise their taxes as well I will just shop in Algonquin or LITH (I’m anti CL due to their “monuments” as well as other stupid actions they have taken).

  2. “Algonquin, Crystal Lake, Lake in the Hills and McHenry”… Let’s stick together, maybe no one will notice!

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