Public Act 93-0556
SB154 Enrolled LRB093 02563 MKM 02573 b
AN ACT concerning county taxes.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Counties Code is amended by changing
Section 5-1006.5 as follows:
(55 ILCS 5/5-1006.5)
Sec. 5-1006.5. Special County Retailers' Occupation Tax
For Public Safety or Transportation.
(a) The county board of any county may impose a tax upon
all persons engaged in the business of selling tangible
personal property, other than personal property titled or
registered with an agency of this State's government, at
retail in the county on the gross receipts from the sales
made in the course of business to provide revenue to be used
exclusively for public safety or transportation purposes in
that county, if a proposition for the tax has been submitted
to the electors of that county and approved by a majority of
those voting on the question. If imposed, this tax shall be
imposed only in one-quarter percent increments. By
resolution, the county board may order the proposition to be
submitted at any election. If the tax is imposed for
transportation purposes for expenditures for public highways
or as authorized under the Illinois Highway Code, the county
board must publish notice of the existence of its long-range
highway transportation plan as required or described in
Section 5-301 of the Illinois Highway Code and must make the
plan publicly available prior to approval of the ordinance or
resolution imposing the tax. If the tax is imposed for
transportation purposes for expenditures for passenger rail
transportation, the county board must publish notice of the
existence of its long-range passenger rail transportation
plan and must make the plan publicly available prior to
approval of the ordinance or resolution imposing the tax. The
county clerk shall certify the question to the proper
election authority, who shall submit the proposition at an
election in accordance with the general election law.
(1) The proposition for public safety purposes
shall be in substantially the following form:
"Shall (name of county) be authorized to impose a
public safety tax at the rate of .... upon all persons
engaged in the business of selling tangible personal
property at retail in the county on gross receipts from
the sales made in the course of their business to be used
for crime prevention, detention, and other public safety
purposes?"
For the purposes of the paragraph, "public safety
purposes" means crime prevention, detention, fire
fighting, police, medical, ambulance, or other emergency
services.
Votes shall be recorded as "Yes" or "No".
(2) The proposition for transportation purposes
shall be in substantially the following form:
"Shall (name of county) be authorized to impose a
tax at the rate of (insert rate) upon all persons engaged
in the business of selling tangible personal property at
retail in the county on gross receipts from the sales
made in the course of their business to be used for
transportation purposes?
For the purposes of this paragraph, transportation
purposes means construction, maintenance, operation, and
improvement of public highways, any other purpose for
which a county may expend funds under the Illinois
Highway Code, and passenger rail transportation.
The votes shall be recorded as "Yes" or "No".
If a majority of the electors voting on the proposition
vote in favor of it, the county may impose the tax. A county
may not submit more than one proposition authorized by this
Section to the electors at any one time.
This additional tax may not be imposed on the sales of
food for human consumption that is to be consumed off the
premises where it is sold (other than alcoholic beverages,
soft drinks, and food which has been prepared for immediate
consumption) and prescription and non-prescription medicines,
drugs, medical appliances and insulin, urine testing
materials, syringes, and needles used by diabetics. The tax
imposed by a county under this Section and all civil
penalties that may be assessed as an incident of the tax
shall be collected and enforced by the Illinois Department of
Revenue and deposited into a special fund created for that
purpose. The certificate of registration that is issued by
the Department to a retailer under the Retailers' Occupation
Tax Act shall permit the retailer to engage in a business
that is taxable without registering separately with the
Department under an ordinance or resolution under this
Section. The Department has full power to administer and
enforce this Section, to collect all taxes and penalties due
under this Section, to dispose of taxes and penalties so
collected in the manner provided in this Section, and to
determine all rights to credit memoranda arising on account
of the erroneous payment of a tax or penalty under this
Section. In the administration of and compliance with this
Section, the Department and persons who are subject to this
Section shall (i) have the same rights, remedies, privileges,
immunities, powers, and duties, (ii) be subject to the same
conditions, restrictions, limitations, penalties, and
definitions of terms, and (iii) employ the same modes of
procedure as are prescribed in Sections 1, 1a, 1a-1, 1d, 1e,
1f, 1i, 1j, 1k, 1m, 1n, 2, 2-5, 2-5.5, 2-10 (in respect to
all provisions contained in those Sections other than the
State rate of tax), 2-15 through 2-70, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3 (except
provisions relating to transaction returns and quarter
monthly payments), 4, 5, 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, 5e, 5f, 5g, 5h, 5i,
5j, 5k, 5l, 6, 6a, 6b, 6c, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 11a, 12, and 13
of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act and Section 3-7 of the
Uniform Penalty and Interest Act as if those provisions were
set forth in this Section.
Persons subject to any tax imposed under the authority
granted in this Section may reimburse themselves for their
sellers' tax liability by separately stating the tax as an
additional charge, which charge may be stated in combination,
in a single amount, with State tax which sellers are required
to collect under the Use Tax Act, pursuant to such bracketed
schedules as the Department may prescribe.
Whenever the Department determines that a refund should
be made under this Section to a claimant instead of issuing a
credit memorandum, the Department shall notify the State
Comptroller, who shall cause the order to be drawn for the
amount specified and to the person named in the notification
from the Department. The refund shall be paid by the State
Treasurer out of the County Public Safety or Transportation
Retailers' Occupation Tax Fund.
(b) If a tax has been imposed under subsection (a), a
service occupation tax shall also be imposed at the same rate
upon all persons engaged, in the county, in the business of
making sales of service, who, as an incident to making those
sales of service, transfer tangible personal property within
the county as an incident to a sale of service. This tax may
not be imposed on sales of food for human consumption that is
to be consumed off the premises where it is sold (other than
alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, and food prepared for
immediate consumption) and prescription and non-prescription
medicines, drugs, medical appliances and insulin, urine
testing materials, syringes, and needles used by diabetics.
The tax imposed under this subsection and all civil penalties
that may be assessed as an incident thereof shall be
collected and enforced by the Department of Revenue. The
Department has full power to administer and enforce this
subsection; to collect all taxes and penalties due hereunder;
to dispose of taxes and penalties so collected in the manner
hereinafter provided; and to determine all rights to credit
memoranda arising on account of the erroneous payment of tax
or penalty hereunder. In the administration of, and
compliance with this subsection, the Department and persons
who are subject to this paragraph shall (i) have the same
rights, remedies, privileges, immunities, powers, and duties,
(ii) be subject to the same conditions, restrictions,
limitations, penalties, exclusions, exemptions, and
definitions of terms, and (iii) employ the same modes of
procedure as are prescribed in Sections 2 (except that the
reference to State in the definition of supplier maintaining
a place of business in this State shall mean the county), 2a,
2b, 2c, 3 through 3-50 (in respect to all provisions therein
other than the State rate of tax), 4 (except that the
reference to the State shall be to the county), 5, 7, 8
(except that the jurisdiction to which the tax shall be a
debt to the extent indicated in that Section 8 shall be the
county), 9 (except as to the disposition of taxes and
penalties collected), 10, 11, 12 (except the reference
therein to Section 2b of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act),
13 (except that any reference to the State shall mean the
county), Section 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 of the Service
Occupation Tax Act and Section 3-7 of the Uniform Penalty and
Interest Act, as fully as if those provisions were set forth
herein.
Persons subject to any tax imposed under the authority
granted in this subsection may reimburse themselves for their
serviceman's tax liability by separately stating the tax as
an additional charge, which charge may be stated in
combination, in a single amount, with State tax that
servicemen are authorized to collect under the Service Use
Tax Act, in accordance with such bracket schedules as the
Department may prescribe.
Whenever the Department determines that a refund should
be made under this subsection to a claimant instead of
issuing a credit memorandum, the Department shall notify the
State Comptroller, who shall cause the warrant to be drawn
for the amount specified, and to the person named, in the
notification from the Department. The refund shall be paid
by the State Treasurer out of the County Public Safety or
Transportation Retailers' Occupation Fund.
Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to
authorize the county to impose a tax upon the privilege of
engaging in any business which under the Constitution of the
United States may not be made the subject of taxation by the
State.
(c) The Department shall immediately pay over to the
State Treasurer, ex officio, as trustee, all taxes and
penalties collected under this Section to be deposited into
the County Public Safety or Transportation Retailers'
Occupation Tax Fund, which shall be an unappropriated trust
fund held outside of the State treasury. On or before the
25th day of each calendar month, the Department shall prepare
and certify to the Comptroller the disbursement of stated
sums of money to the counties from which retailers have paid
taxes or penalties to the Department during the second
preceding calendar month. The amount to be paid to each
county, and deposited by the county into its special fund
created for the purposes of this Section, shall be the amount
(not including credit memoranda) collected under this Section
during the second preceding calendar month by the Department
plus an amount the Department determines is necessary to
offset any amounts that were erroneously paid to a different
taxing body, and not including (i) an amount equal to the
amount of refunds made during the second preceding calendar
month by the Department on behalf of the county and (ii) any
amount that the Department determines is necessary to offset
any amounts that were payable to a different taxing body but
were erroneously paid to the county. Within 10 days after
receipt by the Comptroller of the disbursement certification
to the counties provided for in this Section to be given to
the Comptroller by the Department, the Comptroller shall
cause the orders to be drawn for the respective amounts in
accordance with directions contained in the certification.
In addition to the disbursement required by the preceding
paragraph, an allocation shall be made in March of each year
to each county that received more than $500,000 in
disbursements under the preceding paragraph in the preceding
calendar year. The allocation shall be in an amount equal to
the average monthly distribution made to each such county
under the preceding paragraph during the preceding calendar
year (excluding the 2 months of highest receipts). The
distribution made in March of each year subsequent to the
year in which an allocation was made pursuant to this
paragraph and the preceding paragraph shall be reduced by the
amount allocated and disbursed under this paragraph in the
preceding calendar year. The Department shall prepare and
certify to the Comptroller for disbursement the allocations
made in accordance with this paragraph.
(d) For the purpose of determining the local
governmental unit whose tax is applicable, a retail sale by a
producer of coal or another mineral mined in Illinois is a
sale at retail at the place where the coal or other mineral
mined in Illinois is extracted from the earth. This
paragraph does not apply to coal or another mineral when it
is delivered or shipped by the seller to the purchaser at a
point outside Illinois so that the sale is exempt under the
United States Constitution as a sale in interstate or foreign
commerce.
(e) Nothing in this Section shall be construed to
authorize a county to impose a tax upon the privilege of
engaging in any business that under the Constitution of the
United States may not be made the subject of taxation by this
State.
(e-5) If a county imposes a tax under this Section, the
county board may, by ordinance, discontinue or lower the rate
of the tax. If the county board lowers the tax rate or
discontinues the tax, a referendum must be held in accordance
with subsection (a) of this Section in order to increase the
rate of the tax or to reimpose the discontinued tax.
(f) Beginning April 1, 1998, the results of any election
authorizing a proposition to impose a tax under this Section
or effecting a change in the rate of tax, or any ordinance
lowering the rate or discontinuing the tax, shall be
certified by the county clerk and filed with the Illinois
Department of Revenue either (i) on or before the first day
of April, whereupon the Department shall proceed to
administer and enforce the tax as of the first day of July
next following the filing; or (ii) on or before the first day
of October, whereupon the Department shall proceed to
administer and enforce the tax as of the first day of January
next following the filing.
(g) When certifying the amount of a monthly disbursement
to a county under this Section, the Department shall increase
or decrease the amounts by an amount necessary to offset any
miscalculation of previous disbursements. The offset amount
shall be the amount erroneously disbursed within the previous
6 months from the time a miscalculation is discovered.
(h) This Section may be cited as the "Special County
Occupation Tax For Public Safety or Transportation Law".
(i) For purposes of this Section, "public safety"
includes, but is not limited to, crime prevention, detention,
fire fighting, police, medical, ambulance, or other emergency
services. For the purposes of this Section, "transportation"
includes, but is not limited to, the construction,
maintenance, operation, and improvement of public highways,
any other purpose for which a county may expend funds under
the Illinois Highway Code, and passenger rail transportation.
(Source: P.A. 89-107, eff. 1-1-96; 89-718, eff. 3-7-97;
90-190, eff. 7-24-97; 90-267, eff. 7-30-97; 90-552, eff.
12-12-97; 90-562, eff. 12-16-97; 90-655, eff. 7-30-98;
90-689, eff. 7-31-98.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.