Voters in Lexington in northeast McLean County will decide on Nov. 8 whether to increase the city's sales tax by a half-cent.
“Look at it like this, if you go in the hardware store and you spend $10, you are going to be paying a nickel more,” said Mayor Spencer Johansen in explaining his sales pitch to the community. Johansen said the city needs the additional money to handle rising costs from inflation.
“We’re feeling the crunch like everybody else is as far as their utility bills, and I think this is one way we can offset that,” he said.
For example, Johansen said the power bill for the city water plant this year is $31,000. That's 55% higher than the city paid in all of 2021. He said the city's gas bill has gone way up, too.
“If we get this, none of this increase is going to go toward buying new vehicles or personnel pay raises. It’s going to go directly toward the increase we are seeing in utilities,” Johansen said.
If approved, Lexington would still have a lower sales tax rate (7.25%) than similar-sized area communities LeRoy (7.75%) and Chenoa (7.75%). Lexington’s rate would be equal to Downs and 1.5% lower than Bloomington-Normal.
The increase would come at a time when consumers also face much higher costs.
Johansen is cautious to suggest what might happen if voters reject the higher tax.
“Taxing bodies will put out if we don't get this, you're going to see a cut in services. Nobody is going to see that. We’ll get our heads together and we’ll figure out a way to make ends meet,” he said.
Johansen projects the sales tax increase would generate $75,000 to $100,000 annually if approved.
