Chicago, want your bag tax to jump to 25 cents?
That’s essentially what will happen if the state of Illinois passes a new measure aimed at creating a statewide bag fee similar to Chicago’s existing charge. A new 10-cent state bag fee — effectively a tax on checkout bags — would be added to Chicago’s existing 15-cent charge.
It’ll also introduce this tax to all other Illinoisans, meaning if suburbanites or downstaters need bags for their groceries they’ll have to pay up or bring their own from home.
We’re all in favor of encouraging the use of reusable bags, as many of us do already. We also understand the reality of time-strapped moms and dads making a last minute run for dinner and needing the plastic. (Or paper. In Chicago, you’re charged either way.)
What rubs us the wrong way is the suggestion that this proposal is purely about sustainability. Whatever its environmental aims, the bill would also generate a new revenue stream for the state. After all, a portion of every bag fee would be deposited into the state’s General Revenue Fund.
If it passes, House Bill 5112 would impose a carryout bag fee of $0.10 on each carryout bag starting Jan. 1, 2027. Ten cents is just the beginning. This fee would rise annually until it reaches 25 cents in 2030. But even that limit can increase “if certain goals are not met,” meaning hikes would continue until bag usage drops to 90% below 2027 levels statewide, according to our reading of the legislation.
Retailers who violate the law could face civil penalties of up to $250 for the first offense, up to $500 for a second offense and up to $1,000 for a third or subsequent offense within a 12-month period.
State Rep. Laura Faver Dias, D-Grayslake, sponsored the bill, which hasn’t attracted any co-sponsors. Given that, and that the bill was summarily dispatched to Springfield’s legislative graveyard, the Rules Committee, it seems unlikely to pass. But it isn’t as if bag taxes haven’t had more powerful backers in the past, and this isn’t the first time such a tax has been floated in Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker even included one of his own (5 cents per bag) in his fiscal year 2020 budget proposal. Point is, this idea could resurface in the future.
In January, we learned Illinois is staring down a $2.2 billion budget gap heading into the coming fiscal year. Pritzker’s so-called “maintenance budget,” a whopping $56 billion fiscal 2027 spending proposal, is up from $55 billion last year, and leans into targeted tax hikes, such as a social media tax, to gin up new revenue. It’s unclear how much revenue this bag tax proposal would generate. And while it exempts SNAP purchases, it’d be sure to hit middle-class shoppers hard. There are plenty of folks who don’t qualify for SNAP who are struggling to afford groceries.
We encourage folks to ditch the plastic. But this fee scheme, in our view, uses a good cause to justify yet another revenue stream — one that helps avoid harder decisions about spending. Illinois residents are tired of hearing about new revenue ideas and want Springfield to get serious about spending reform. Let’s start there.
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