The Roscoe village board held a first reading July 1 of an ordinance to continue the village's 1% municipal grocery tax, with trustees debating whether Roscoe should remain aligned with neighboring municipalities or put the question to a public referendum.

The ordinance under consideration, listed in meeting materials as Ordinance 2025-o14, would reinstate or continue a 1% grocery tax that the village has used in prior years. Village leadership told trustees the tax generated about $100,000 in 2025 revenue and that the per-family impact, by income band in the village's materials, ranges from under $25 per year for lower-income families to $25–$85 for higher-income households.

The Village President framed the tax as a modest per-household contribution to general services, noting anecdotally that “out of groceries totaling $308.08, my 1% amounted to $2.72.” Trustees voiced differing views: one trustee said the governor's earlier state decision that removed the tax created a political dynamic and argued the village should either restore the tax or present it as a referendum so residents could decide. Another trustee raised concerns about cumulative costs if similar levies were applied statewide.

At the meeting, a motion was made and seconded to authorize continuation of the municipal grocery tax and the chair called for a roll-call vote. Multiple trustees responded “no” during that roll call; the record supplied contains several recorded “no” responses. The transcript does not provide a clear, complete final tally of the roll-call vote in the portion provided.

Trustees also noted that nearby communities — Rockford, Rockton and South Beloit — have taken steps to adopt or continue similar taxes; the president said Roscoe would be an “outlier” if it did not act. Trustees discussed the transparency of putting the matter before voters versus deciding at the board level.

The ordinance remains at the first-reading stage at the close of the recorded discussion. The board did not adopt final ordinance text at this meeting in the portion of the transcript provided; next steps were not specified in the record provided to reporters.