Schaumburg to keep grocery tax, ‘flexibility’ in balanced budget amid economic uncertainty

Schaumburg trustees have unanimously recommended introducing a 1% grocery tax to replace one the state collects on behalf of municipalities but is eliminating next year.

The move will retain about $4 million in Schaumburg’s proposed budget.

The move was not unexpected. Among the 43 members of the Northwest Municipal Conference, Executive Director Mark Fowler said Streamwood is the only one forgoing the tax.

Schaumburg Village Manager Brian Townsend said the grocery tax represents about 10% of the sales tax revenue of the state’s second largest economy. The budget put together over the past several months expected its retention.

The village’s balanced budget anticipates revenues of $369.8 million and expenses of $369.5 million, with a surplus of $334,386 expected at the end of the fiscal year on April 30, 2026.

Economic uncertainty sparked by President Donald Trump’s tariff proposals coupled with other financial unknowns could affect both the costs and revenue streams that have been estimated in the budget, Townsend said.

Nevertheless, he described the budget as one with some flexibility that could come from reserves, belt-tightening and other measures.

“If we start to see a recession, we have to make adjustments,” he said.

Among local challenges to the budget, Townsend named public safety pension contributions, overall personnel costs, the village’s current facility needs and the previously mentioned elimination of the state’s grocery tax.

Schaumburg levied a property tax for the first time in 2009 due to the impact on consumer revenues from The Great Recession. Since then, the annual levy amount has occasionally come down — never up — but has remained stable for several years now.

Townsend warned public safety pension contributions will soon consume all property tax revenues.

But recent recovery in the office market could shift some of the property tax burden back to commercial properties after the opposite trend toward homeowners that followed the pandemic.

A new village hall is being built, a new police station designed and the village is studying fire station location optimization.

The many capital improvements account for a 13.2% increase in expenditures along with a 4.4% increase in employee salaries, many through union contracts. But revenues are also anticipated to be 6.7% higher than last year.

The budget includes the possibility of a special census that could reveal Schaumburg’s population has exceeded 80,000 people for the first time. Any increase would bring the village a greater share of the state’s income taxes.

Village officials said the proposed budget reflects goals based on a 2024 resident survey. The village board is slated to formally approve it Tuesday. It is available at schaumburg.com/budget.