HAMPSHIRE, Ill. -- Drivers filling up their tanks in Kane County, Ill., a Chicago collar county, will pay more starting April 1 under a tax increase approved by the county board Tuesday in an 18 to 5 vote, reported The Daily Herald.
Doubling the county gasoline tax to four cents per gallon is expected to generate an additional $4.6 million in revenue annuallymoney the county will use to build new roads and bridges and maintain its current transportation infrastructure.
State transportation committee chairman Jan Carlson (R), said [image-nocss] he would consider exempting diesel, biodiesel and ethanol fuels from the tax increase when the committee meets in two weeks.
Hampshire Village President Jeff Magnussen said any additional taxes on diesel fuel would hurt his village, home to three truckstops that sell 80% of the diesel fuel sold in the county. Higher prices could cause Hampshire's diesel fuel sales to drop 20% to 30%, he said. That would translate into an annual loss for the village of at least $45,000 in local sales tax on gasoline and $1,670 more in local sales tax on ancillary convenience store-type goods sold at the gas stations.
I understand the need to raise funds, but essentially what this tax is going to do is hurt three businesses, R.J. Rymas, director of special operations at Road Ranger, one of Hampshire's three truckstops, told the newspaper. He added that a tax hike would force him to re-evaluate his company's plans for a $1.7 million remodeling project at the Hampshire location.
Board member Deborah Allan (R) voted against the tax hike, the report said, calling it a regressive tax that hurts the poorest people first.
The issue has surfaced periodically since 1991 when a state law was enacted allowing the collar counties to impose taxes of up to four cents a gallon, said the report. The Kane County Board, however, had authorized only half that amount. Officials have argued ever since but never took action because such a tax increase is not politically popular. But board member Bill Wyatt (R) cited a community survey completed last year in which 56% of respondents said they would be willing to pay more taxes to support transportation improvements.
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