Public Act 0474 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SB0345 Enrolled LRB095 07281 HLH 27419 b

Public Act 095-0474

AN ACT concerning local government.

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:

"To pay for public safety purposes, shall (name of county) be authorized to impose an increase on its share of local sales taxes by (insert rate)?"

As additional information on the ballot below the question shall appear the following:

"This would mean that a consumer would pay an additional (insert amount) in sales tax for every $100 of tangible personal property bought at retail."

The county board may also opt to establish a sunset provision at which time the additional sales tax would cease being collected, if not terminated earlier by a vote of the county board. If the county board votes to include a sunset provision, the proposition for public safety purposes shall be in substantially the following form:

"To pay for public safety purposes, shall (name of county) be authorized to impose an increase on its share of local sales taxes by (insert rate) for a period not to exceed (insert number of years)?"

As additional information on the ballot below the question shall appear the following:

"This would mean that a consumer would pay an additional (insert amount) in sales tax for every $100 of tangible personal property bought at retail. If imposed, the additional tax would cease being collected at the end of (insert number of years), if not terminated earlier by a vote of the county board."

"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?"

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:

"To pay for improvements to roads and other transportation purposes, shall (name of county) be authorized to impose an increase on its share of local sales taxes by (insert rate)?"

As additional information on the ballot below the question shall appear the following:

"This would mean that a consumer would pay an additional (insert amount) in sales tax for every $100 of tangible personal property bought at retail."

The county board may also opt to establish a sunset provision at which time the additional sales tax would cease being collected, if not terminated earlier by a vote of the county board. If the county board votes to include a sunset provision, the proposition for transportation purposes shall be in substantially the following form:

"To pay for road improvements and other transportation purposes, shall (name of county) be authorized to impose an increase on its share of local sales taxes by (insert rate) for a period not to exceed (insert number of years)?"

As additional information on the ballot below the question shall appear the following:

"This would mean that a consumer would pay an additional (insert amount) in sales tax for every $100 of tangible personal property bought at retail. If imposed, the additional tax would cease being collected at the end of (insert number of years), if not terminated earlier by a vote of the county board."

"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 through 2-70 (in respect to all provisions contained in those Sections other than the State rate of tax), 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. 93-556, eff. 8-20-03; 94-781, eff. 5-19-06.)

Effective Date: 1/1/2008