Village of Godfrey Board of Trustees: Public Safety, Finance, Board Meetings
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GODFREY – The Village of Godfrey has become the first and only Riverbend municipality not to replace the state’s expiring 1% sales tax on groceries. Instead, Mayor Mike McCormick cast a tie-breaking vote to raise the village’s sales tax by 0.75%.
An ordinance to raise the sales tax in Godfrey was originally set for a first reading on Tuesday before trustees called for a suspension of the rules, bringing it to an immediate final vote. After significant discussion and debate, Village Board members voted their way into a 3-3 tie, with McCormick casting the tie-breaking vote in favor.
Raising the sales tax was first proposed by Village Engineer Rich Beran, who pitched it as an alternative to replacing the state’s 1% sales tax on groceries like many other local municipalities. His proposal aimed to ease grocery costs for residents by effectively lowering the sales tax rate on groceries from the current 1%, while boosting tax revenue from visitors by raising the sales tax on all other items.
The ordinance will raise Godfrey’s sales tax on goods and services by 0.75%. With a current sales tax rate of 6.85%, this would bring the village’s new sales tax rate to 7.6%.
“The staff and I have spent a lot of time trying to decide what’s best for the Village of Godfrey, and at this time, we feel … to do away with the grocery tax. The grocery tax hurts people in need of relief more than most because everybody has to eat,” McCormick said, adding that the 0.75% sales tax increase would “still keep Godfrey as one of the cheapest sales tax [rates] in Madison County.”
“That’s what the staff wants, that’s what I want, and I think that’s what will best satisfy the residents of the Village of Godfrey – allowing us to do more stuff along the stormwater lines … but not hurting the people that need help the most,” the mayor said.
100% of the proceeds from the state’s 1% sales tax on groceries have gone directly to local municipalities since 1990. With that tax set to expire in 2026, many communities across Illinois have voted to replace the state tax with their own local grocery taxes to offset major annual revenue losses. Among these are the Riverbend communities of Belleville, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Jerseyville, and Wood River.
Trustee Rick Lauschke raised concerns about allowing the state grocery tax to expire. If the board fails to replace the grocery tax by this October, he said they may never be able to re-implement it, whereas they could implement a non-home rule sales tax at any time. Another concern of his was that the sales tax revenue could essentially be used for anything, when the village’s original intent was to “get caught up on” road, stormwater, and park projects.
Instead, Lauschke suggested replacing the grocery tax as other municipalities have done, then preparing an estimate of road, stormwater, and park projects the village wants completed before looking into raising the sales tax.
“I think that we have one shot to do this. If we don’t do it, then we’re not going to get it back,” Lauschke said of the grocery tax. “We can always come back with a sales tax … and if anybody wants, sunset the tax. We can take it off, and if we need to put it back on later, we can put it on, we can do 1% for the sales tax. The grocery tax, from what I’ve read, it either gets done by October or we don’t get it again.
“I think we’re missing an opportunity by not keeping that grocery tax in place. Every village, municipality that I’m aware of has done it.”
Beran said this sales tax increase would more than make up for the estimated $800,000 loss in annual village revenue from allowing the state grocery tax to expire. In fact, Beran estimated the 0.75% increase would generate a total of $2.25 million, marking a net gain of $1.45 million after accounting for the lost grocery tax revenue.
Voting against the ordinance were Lauschke, Mike Fisher, and Craig Lombardi. Voting in favor were McCormick, Karen McAtee, Sarah Woodman, and Gerard Fischer.
A full recording of the July 1, 2025 Godfrey Village Board meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
