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Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced that the state will be removing the 1% grocery tax, starting January 1st. However, municipalities in the state are allowed to implement their own 1% tax to keep revenues whole. There are tax exemptions for those in government benefit programs such as SNAP, which some community members find unfair. Bloomington resident, Misty Metroz, says this about the exemption, “Its dismissive to anybody else who’s not receiving assistance and that is wrong. Just because someone is not on government assistance does not mean that they are not already struggling with the amount of taxes that we have in this state, in the county, and in the city.” The council voted on two motions, one that would deny the tax being implemented and another that would decrease the tax to 0.5%. Neither of these motions were passed, which left the last vote to determine whether the tax would be implemented. The council voted in favor of the tax, which now means Bloomington residents will be faced with a 1% tax on all grocery purchases.