Matt Wigginton, Mayor of the Village of Peoria Heights, said he vetoed a proposed 1% grocery tax due to concerns that it would burden low-income residents already struggling with basic living costs.
“Just because the state is allowing us to tax doesn’t mean we should,” said Wigginton. “We can survive without taxing, especially when it’s the people who can least afford it that are being hurt the most. The people who can barely afford their other living expenses shouldn’t have to pay more just to put food on the table.”
According to Illinois Policy, state lawmakers voted to end Illinois’s 1% grocery tax while allowing municipalities to maintain or reimpose a local 1% tax without requiring a voter referendum. In Peoria Heights, village trustees adopted such a tax before Mayor Wigginton vetoed it. He argued that the village should not balance its budget “on the backs of families at the grocery checkout,” even as other communities, including Chicago, consider using the tax to raise millions in revenue.
Peoria Heights’ proposed 1% grocery tax mirrored the expiring state surcharge, effectively adding a penny for every dollar spent on most food purchases. Village officials estimated that the tax would generate about $125,000 annually from residents’ grocery bills, money they said was needed to support local services. Wigginton countered that grocery taxes are regressive because they consume a larger share of income from working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and households living paycheck to paycheck. He emphasized that the village can balance its budget through spending discipline rather than higher food taxes.
Across Illinois, hundreds of communities are deciding whether to keep the 1% grocery tax as state collection ends. More than 500 out of roughly 1,300 municipalities have informed the Illinois Department of Revenue they will continue it, generating about $300 million statewide in a recent year — including around $50 million in Chicago alone — even as polling shows more than 70% of Illinoisans want grocery taxes to end.
Mayor Wigginton leads the nonpartisan village in the Peoria metro area and has focused on keeping local taxes competitive. His priorities include attracting new businesses such as grocery retailers, prioritizing public safety and neighborhood quality of life, shielding residents from what he considers unnecessary or regressive tax hikes, and promoting fiscally conservative ideas in talks with regional Republican groups.
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FULL, UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT
Bryan Hyde: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Prairie State Wire Podcast. I’m Brian Hyde. Today I’m joined by Matt Wigginton, who is the current mayor of the Village of Peoria Heights. Matt, thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast.
Matt Wiggington: Thank you, Brian, for having me.
Bryan Hyde: Tell us just a little bit about your background. You, you are currently the mayor, but you, you have, you’ve held some other interesting jobs along the way, haven’t you?
Matt Wiggington: I have. Thank you. And so I am currently the mayor and, and you’re right, but I’m, I’m fairly green. I’ve only been mayor of the, of Pere Heights, my community, for about three and a half, four months now. And prior to this I did serve on our board of trustees, so our city council and was also our clerk of our township.
So that’s just more, that’s a closer to the people form of government. But, but yeah, it’s still very local, local communities helping with like general assistance and things like that. So. So, yeah, I’ve been involved in, in government for a little while, but [00:01:00] not necessarily this mayor gig. This is, this is fairly new.
Bryan Hyde: Well, I, I applaud you for getting in and getting your feet wet and it, you, you have wasted no time in getting involved in a very timely issue. That being the issue of the expiration of the statewide grocery tax. Could you set the stage for us and, and talk to us about how does this affect the village of Peoria Heights?
Matt Wiggington: Well, so you’re right. So the Illinois back last year decided from a statewide perspective to do away with our grocery tax and that grocery tax, the way it’s handled is that it’s was passed, that the funds were passed immediately to the various municipalities. So when they did away with it on the state level, they did give each municipality an option to institute their own local grocery tax.
Many municipalities in, in Illinois have done that, but I, I kind of took a stand when I was running that I did not think that was gonna be the right fit for our [00:02:00] community for a number of reasons. One, our community is fairly poverty stricken. We, we have a very low income. We, pure Heights is an old factory brewery town.
The Paps Blue Ribbon Brewery left about 35 years ago. So when that brewery left, we, they were left with people that just had worked there and no other places to go. So unfortunately the state of Illinois as well as federal government recognizes our community is having such a poverty level that a hundred percent of our school, public school students get free breakfast and free lunch.
And so with faced with the option of taxing their dinner table, it just didn’t make sense. To pass that cost onto the people who can barely afford their other living expenses, much less just food. So that was kind of the reality I was faced with. There were al also [00:03:00] some economic realities here as well, Brian, that we are losing our grocery store.
One of the things is our grocery store is exiting our community and we’re faced with the reality that we could have a food desert in our community as well. So when I have every surrounding municipality instituting a 1% tax on groceries, and I’m the mu municipality that doesn’t, that makes groceries 1% cheaper in my community and can be attractive to a grocery store trying to relocate to maybe the place that’s up 1% cheaper.
So it was just kind of a no-brainer for me.
Bryan Hyde: So talk to me a little bit about the people who pushed back on your, your veto of, of the, uh, the, the grocery tax. I, I’m curious what their reasoning was or, or what, what they offered as, as for why we need to keep this
Matt Wiggington: Well, you know, so it’s hard to get off the, it, it’s, I, I guess, and I, I wanna be kind, [00:04:00] so, yeah, I, I think that, that we have a, a stream of income.
That from this tax that brings in somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 to $135,000 annually. And so they have plans that they could utilize those funds. So they do not wanna see us going to the red from a budget perspective. Uh, however we end every year for the LA for close to a decade. With a surplus that far outpaces what this grocery tax would bring in or the what we would lose on this grocery tax.
So just because the state is allowing us to tax doesn’t mean we should and we can survive without taxing. Again, this regressive nature of this tax, we’re taxing over the people that are gonna be hurt the most are the people who can’t afford it. So I, I, that was the [00:05:00] argument that was made and I’m, I’m sorry I’m shooting holes in it from the very get go.
But, but yeah, that, that was the argument, the, the devil’s the advocate there.
Bryan Hyde: So I, I’m curious, are there, are there other ways for, for those who say, look, we need, we need to, to keep that amount of revenue. Are there other places that they could make up that revenue without impacting the people who leased, can afford to, to be taxed?
Matt Wiggington: Sure. Absolutely. I mean, one of the things that, I mean, even I’ve focused on is economic growth and we are experiencing, it’s not like we’re we, the way we have these surpluses is because we, we’ve been able to have a, a vibrant, in my community, a vibrant restaurant and more bar. But it, it is, it is a destination in our local area.
So Prairie Heights is, is somewhat of a destination where people come and they’ll, they’ll come out to dinner and we are seeing growth. We’re, we’re seeing a lot of that. And, and restaurants and [00:06:00] businesses want to open in our area because they, they see success begets success. So we’ve, we’ve had people bring in business here, and that is, you know.
To tell you the truth, the tax revenue that comes from that is people dining in our area. These are people, like I mentioned, that are co living in these factory houses, these, these brewery houses. These are people coming to our area from outside that are paying for our curbs and gutters. Their, their dinners and their drinks pay for our infrastructure.
So our levy that we place on our taxpayers. 5 cents on the dollar, less than 5 cents. So we get 5 cents on people’s, you know, their home home values. So for every dollar that they are assessed, five of cents of that goes to our village. So really the how we pay the bills is economic success. People coming in and dining out, and just job creation in Pere Heights.[00:07:00]
Bryan Hyde: I have to say this is, this is a really refreshing break from a lot of politicians who, well, you know, it’s a necessity and they basically, they’ll excuse any excuse to, or any reason to, to continue taxing. I’m curious, what do you hear from, from fellow people who hold elected office, whether it be other mayors or, or council members, or, or I I, I’m curious, are you, are you getting pushback from, from other elected officials?
Matt Wiggington: I, I, I think there is not necessarily a pushback. There is somewhat of a, a appreciation for the stance that I’ve been able to take even though they were not able to do it. So I think it is a place where a lot of people would like to have landed. I just think that either their boards wouldn’t allow it or their budgets wouldn’t either, and so it’s, it’s shouldn’t be that.
You know, people have said, you know, how brave and courageous, like it shouldn’t [00:08:00] be. I shouldn’t be out on a limb really here doing this. I, I just don’t understand how this is such how brave I am. This should be a pretty much a no brainer. Uh, so, you know, I appreciate the, the compliment, but yeah, I, I, I’m just surprised that not a lot of other communities have taken the opportunity to offer some tax relief in, in Illinois.
When Springfield allows you to get away from attacks, you know, it doesn’t happen that often, so you, you run with it and I’m, I’m a little bit surprised that. Not a lot of my neighboring communities have taken that chance.
Bryan Hyde: When it comes to attracting other grocery stores to, to replace the, the one that is going to be leaving your community, what are, what are the incentives that they’re looking for?
Is, is it to who can give them the greatest tax breaks or, or are they just looking for a situation where, where there’s not as much red tape to have to work through in order to, to run their business? Yeah,
Matt Wiggington: and I think, I think it’s, [00:09:00] it’s a combination of that for sure. Brian, I, I mean. We we’re, I I, we try to be very, you know, when people come to us and we’ll say, oh, we’ve never done it that way before, but that’s interesting and let’s try to work it that work that way.
You know, while other maybe communities say, well, this is the way we do it and it has to be this way. So we, we try to be innovative. And, and you know, I’ve already met with some interested grocers, you know, that offer produce and, you know, staples like milk and bread and, and, and again, fresh produce that is important.
These are in our community. We’re gonna have, we’re not gonna have our big box jucos or Kroger or, or things like that. We’re, we’re, we’re really gonna have a more, more of a local mom and pop, small business kind of grocer. I think given that we should, we’ll probably have that type of community, but [00:10:00] again, I’ve met with the several interested parties that are already willing to come and partner with Peoria Heights.
It just depends on, you know, we’re gonna offer them lower taxes than our neighboring communities, but if they need some other economic incentives. I’m, I’m certainly open to those as well.
Bryan Hyde: You know, it seems like groceries are one of those places too. I, I know you, you described this, and I agree, the grocery tax is, is a regressive tax, but there’s no place that I feel the, the cost of inflation, for instance, more keenly than any time I set foot in the grocery store.
That’s my pocketbook feels each and every trip to the grocery store, and I go, wow, that cost this much more. What kind of feedback are you getting from the residents of your community?
Matt Wiggington: I, it, it is, it is striking. I’ve had many, many people, people I, that I don’t even know that it’ll stop me and say, thank you.
Thank you for taking this stand. Thank you for, for vetoing the ordinance that would’ve essentially raised [00:11:00] their grocery prices even more. Because you’re right, in this environment, we’ve seen it, we, we’ve seen the inflation and it’s not stopping. Uh, and so we, we continue to have. Pay more and more at the checkout counter.
And so if I can offer some relief, it, this is a big win. So I’ve had a lot of people thank me for taking the stand and at least fighting the good fight while, while I am. So, yes. Thank you.
Bryan Hyde: Matt, you mentioned that the council is, is, is possibly going to try to override your, your veto. I, I’m curious what, what sort of feedback you are getting from.
The, those elected leaders, you know, in, in your, in your area as far as Do, do they, do many of them agree with this or
Matt Wiggington: do I’ve
Bryan Hyde: had,
Matt Wiggington: yeah. I’ve had, you know, so this was the first veto in my community pretty much ever. I, it, it just never, has, never had been used. It’s, it’s been on the book since [00:12:00] 1914. It just has never been used.
So I, I, I thought what a perfect time to use it to, to help again. Overarching demographic in our community. So I, I’ve had, you know, not every community has our demographics and, you know, and not faced with the same realities that we are. But I’ve had several, again, people who are, represent various communities who sit on, you know, boards that have passed it, who voted against it when it came up in their thing that said, thank you for taking the stand.
So I, I, I have been. Um, pleasantly surprised by some of the feedback that I’ve gotten. Others have said, you know, I, I, I get what you’re, why you did that. You know, it just didn’t make sense to our bottom line, and it, it, again, I, I don’t represent, they, I’m not their mayor, so I’m sure they came from a place [00:13:00] where they were trying to work things well with their community just in mind.
It didn’t fit it and it didn’t make sense.
Bryan Hyde: Well, it’s, it’s gotta be tough to swim against the current like that. I’m looking at a Chicago Tribune editorial where they note 539 municipalities have adopted local, local grocery taxes. That’s according to the Illinois Municipal League. So, I mean, I, this doesn’t sound to me like there’s, like, you’re just being a contrarian.
It sounds like you’re sincerely looking out for the, the betterment of your community, but does it feel kinda lonely? Standing there.
Matt Wiggington: Well, so right now you find me at the Illinois Municipal League conference, so I’m calling you from this and I, I, yeah, it is, it’s a little lonely. I, I, I’m surprised. A again, I didn’t expect to be out on this limb, but it is a little lonely, and I, I’m, I’m, I was just, I’m just frankly surprised.
So, but I’m not, like I said, I’m not a contrarian. This is, and like you said, Brian, I. [00:14:00] This was for my community. There, there are various methods that just make it right for, for my community. And, and I, I had to take the adv. I, I, I had to take this chance and yes, they may overturn my veto, my council, but what I, what I’ve done is all the grocery taxes had to be certified by October 1st.
We’re gonna miss that deadline, so I’ve at least provided. By the time they overturn my veto, I’ve at least provided six months of, of grocery tax, even if they overturn my veto. I’ve, I’ve provided six months of relief to my citizens, so I’ll, I’ll take that, I guess.
Bryan Hyde: Okay. One final question for you, and that is for people who want to, to either get more involved or for that matter to be heard on this issue, what do you recommend they do?
Matt Wiggington: Well, I, I would say. Contact your, your local [00:15:00] municipal, either your board member or your mayor or their, your administrator, your manager. Talk to them and tell them why this grocery tax doesn’t make sense for, for our community if we’re, if, if you, if you can get a little bit of tax relief again in this environment, especially in Illinois, if you can get some relief.
You should grab it with both hands. And so, and this regressive tax needs to go. It needs to go. It doesn’t. It’s, and this is, this is not just limited to the communities that have a overwhelming poverty rate. Every, there are gonna be people living in poverty in every community. Give them some relief. Uh, so that’s what I would challenge your listeners to, Brian is.
Take this opportunity and run with it if you can. I, I, I would love, I’d love to have their support.
Bryan Hyde: Alright. And [00:16:00] we, we shall see if the power of example, you know, sparks. Some courage that that spreads to other municipal leaders. Again, we’re, I hope so. We’re talking with Mayor Matt Wigginton, who is the mayor of the Village of Peoria Heights.
Matt, thank you so much for joining us today on the Prairie State Wire Podcast.
Matt Wiggington: Thank you, Brian.
