Students and families to save under common sense legislation
A bill that would exempt all public schools and their students from paying sales tax on school lunches passed the Illinois Senate on Wednesday, April 11. State Senator Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) carried Senate Bill 1755 in an effort to put all schools on equal footing regardless of who provides school meals to students.
Under current law, sales tax is only exempt if the school itself provides meals to the students, however, if a school has outside businesses to provide food directly to students, those sales are subject to sales tax.
A parent from the Oak Grove School District, which brings in outside businesses to provide meals, brought the concern to Sen. McConchie’s attention. After researching the topic with other school districts in District 26, he soon discovered several other schools do not have the facilities to serve cooked breakfast and lunch—forcing students to pay a higher cost in order to eat.
“Students should not be on the hook to pay sales tax solely because they go to a school that does not have the ability to provide meals,” said Sen. McConchie. “This isn’t fair, whatsoever. The right thing to do is exempt all school lunch sales from sales tax regardless of who provides the meals.”
Senate Bill 1755 now moves to the Illinois House for further consideration.