The village of Mokena has joined numerous other municipalities in continuing the 1% grocery tax the state of Illinois will end Jan. 1.

The Mokena Village Board voted 6-0 Monday to continue the tax that brings in about $850,000 a year, funding general services, “anything affecting public safety, streets, administration, those types of things,” Village Manager John Tomasoski said.

The village is home to three big box stores, Meijer, Brookhaven Marketplace and Berkot’s, as well as gas stations and convenience stores that sell groceries.

“That would be a huge revenue loss,” Tomasoski said.

As of last month, as many as 190 communities across the state had opted replace the state tax, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue. Mokena’s tax will begin Jan. 1, the same day the statewide tax is scheduled to end.

In the south and southwest suburbs that includes Blue Island, Chicago Heights, Crestwood, Evergreen Park, Markham, Oak Lawn, Richton Park, Tinley Park, Crete and Homewood. Hazel Crest discussed implementing the tax June 10, and was scheduled to vote Tuesday night on adopting it.

Tomasoski said the village works to maintain lower taxes overall compared to neighboring municipalities, boasting a 7.5% sales tax and a 0.22% property tax rate. Frankfort’s sales tax rate is 8%, New Lenox’s is 9% and Tinley Park’s is 9.75%.

The board chose to implement the grocery tax after approving the upcoming year’s budget June 9, which includes plans to build a new village hall.

“You want to be as fair as you can be to your residents and businesses with taxation certainly, especially in Illinois,” Tomasoski said.

He said some of the revenue generated by the grocery tax specifically comes from nonresidents, which factored into the board’s decision to continue it.

Illinois residents already pay the highest combined state and local taxes in the nation, at more than $13,000 annually, according to a recent report by WalletHub.

Mokena Mayor George Metanias, like other municipal leaders, took aim at Gov. JB Pritzker for signing the bill last year repealing the state grocery tax while leaving it open for individual municipalities to levy their own tax.

“He did it for the municipalities, knowing that the municipalities are going to be losing a ton of money,” Metanias said. “He knew that every municipality is going to put it back in that has groceries in them like we do.”

Metanias said removing the tax was a “political move” on the part of Pritzker, but he hasn’t seen pushback for continuing the tax.

“Nobody’s going to see any difference,” Metanias said.

The board also voted to increase wages for the village’s nonunion employees by 3% to mirror wage increases negotiated by the four unions that represent other village staff. Tomasoski said the wage increase reflects cost-of-living changes and partially compensates for a recent increase in employee health insurance costs.

About 30 village employees are nonunion, according to the compensation resolution approved by the board.

Mokena’s board meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 11004 Carpenter St.

ostevens@chicagotribune.com