Businesses in Market Square in Lake Forest, Illinois would be eligible for the grant program based on their sales tax receipts. | By Slo-mo
Businesses in Market Square in Lake Forest, Illinois would be eligible for the grant program based on their sales tax receipts. | By Slo-mo
Lake Forest will send a portion of sales taxes back to local businesses where they were generated in a grant program created to provide them with some financial relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lake Forest City Council officials voted on April 20 to get the program off the ground, the Chicago Tribune reported. Lake Forest Finance Director Elizabeth Holleb said the program will be funded through the city’s municipal sales tax receipts spanning from March through December.
The city will fund the program with 1% of the municipal sales tax revenue to help businesses that qualify for the grant. The city will keep three-fourths of the tax revenue, using the remaining one-fourth to fund the business grants.
Documents obtained from the city show it has 569 businesses that are eligible for some level of grant assistance, the Chicago Tribune reported. About 64% of the businesses would qualify for less than $100 in grants.
After applying for a grant, each business could draw money out each month. They could also draw it out twice as fast, or wait to let the funds collect. A maximum of $12,500 was set as the grant maximum, though it's based on how much in sales tax an individual business collects.
Holleb said the businesses won't need to fight over the grant funds.
“They will not have to race everyone else to the money,” Holleb told the Chicago Tribune. “Provided their sales are sufficient from March through December … that money is there for them.”
And they won't have to deal with a delay in getting the funds.
“We’re not going to make them wait the three months that the city waits for (sales tax) money,” Holleb told the Chicago Tribune.
Joe Knesley, who is the owner of Chief’s Pub in Lake Forest, said businesses aren't meeting their annual quotas this year. He says businesses will use the money to keep their doors open.
“Clearly, we’re not doing what we used to do or what we projected for this year,” Knesley told the Chicago Tribune. “Any kind of grants or loans that are available to us, we’re going to use to keep our doors open. ... Every dollar counts at this time."
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