ROCKFORD — Illinois lawmakers passed the new $53 billion budget in the early hours of Wednesday morning and cut the state’s grocery tax in the process. Cities and municipalities around the state rallied for months to try and keep the tax since the money goes directly back to their budgets. Now, leaders like Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara will have to replace eight million dollars the tax used to bring in.

"You’re talking $8 million, that’s 80 police officers, that’s 80 firefighters… $8 million, that’s about 100 public works employees," McNamara said.

His frustration was felt by most Stateline municipalities and leaders, many of whom passed resolutions opposing the state cutting the tax. McNamara says it’s frustrating that the state made a choice that impacts local governments so much without looking for their opinion.

"Mind you, they don’t get a single dollar with that tax, so they’re doing away with a revenue source of ours without a say from us," McNamara said.

However, cities do have the choice to add their own grocery tax. The grocery tax runs through December 31, 2025, so McNamara says you can expect this issue to come up in the middle of next year.

"Truthfully what I think you’re going to see is cities across the entire state take a look at instituting that tax," McNamara said. "Now that tax will run through December 31 of 2025, so it’s not going to impact us this budget cycle. Probably middle of next we’ll start discussing what we’ll need to do to fill that gap."

State Representative Dave Vella supported cutting the grocery tax and says this will give each individual city the chance to craft their own tax that would suit people better than a blanket tax by the state.

"Each individual municipality can put it in however they deem appropriate," Vella said. "So for instance, let’s say you’re in Rockford and you want to do a grocery tax, you can do it if you’re under a certain income or over a certain income… you can tax certain items…"

McNamara says he supports saving people money wherever he can, but says Rockford along with other municipalities will have to make tough choices between keeping those savings at the grocery store and continuing to fund city services that people count on.

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