With the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic still fresh in their minds, Arlington Heights Finance Director Tom Kuehne and the rest of the village’s budget team are used to playing it safe with revenue estimates.
“We always try to be really conservative with our revenue projections, especially right now, because we really can’t be sure what’s going to happen in the future,” Kuehne said. “And we saw that uncertainty with sales taxes.”
Illinois Department of Revenue records show Arlington Heights saw sales tax revenues climb 30% in one fiscal year. From July 2021 to June 2022, Arlington Heights received $5.7 million more in sales taxes than it did during those same 12 months a year prior.
Kuehne and crew had accounted for a modest increase, but they got about $4.5 million more than what was forecast. And they weren’t alone.
A Daily Herald analysis of 95 suburban sales tax receipts during the state’s 2021 and 2022 fiscal years shows the towns combined to average a 28.6% increase in sales tax revenues, resulting in nearly $230 million more.
In Barrington Hills, sales tax revenue grew from $66,587 in the state’s 2021 fiscal year to $214,071 in 2022, a 222% increase.
Inverness and Wayne, also small bedroom communities, more than doubled sales tax revenues last year.
Read the full Daily Herald story here.
Does this explain how BH was able to lower the levy? Where do these sales taxes go for village spending purposes? Can they use it on anything? It really stinks that the consumer is once again the one screwed by government. A slight break in sales tax was a very welcomed benefit of buying online.