County Board prepares for vote on sales-tax increase

During a 90-minute afternoon session of their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 20, the Cook County Commissioners fine tuned a draft resolution regarding the implementation of a sales tax increase. The half-cent sales tax would help fund the local highway department. 

After much discussion on the topic of using the generated funds to build or improve facilities for the highway department, it appears facilities will not appear on an initial list that the tax revenue can be spent on. However, the board made it very clear during the public meeting that facilities will likely be discussed as a possible option for the funds at some point in the future. If facilities for the highway department will be constructed by sales tax funds, a public hearing will be held prior to any such action.

A final vote on the resolution is expected during the board’s next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 27.