Action Needed, Regional Mitigations

The Illinois Restaurant Association continues to engage with local, state, and federal officials to help our employers and employees address concerns about COVID-19.

Please see the below resources and information for your business - updated as of 10:55 p.m. on Wednesday, October 21.

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Take Action to Call on State Leaders to Allow for Indoor Service in Regional Mitigation

The IRA is calling on Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly to take a pragmatic, tiered approach to mitigations and provide direct financial support to struggling restaurants around the state. Unless the state of Illinois takes a more reasonable approach to mitigation, thousands of restaurants are at risk of permanent closure.

COVID-19 cases are rising in Illinois, but the fact is that restaurants are not to blame. Restaurants are highly-regulated, frequently inspected, and held to the highest health standards. Keeping people safe is what restaurants do every single day. Closing restaurants for indoor service will result in the exact opposite of the intended impact of slowing the spread, as it drives people further into uncontrolled, unmonitored private gatherings where few safety precautions are in place.

Send a message to the Governor and leaders in the General Assembly to consider these urgent requests for relief and collaborate with the restaurant industry to allow for restaurants and bars to safely maintain their indoor operations.

New Regional Mitigations, Suspended Indoor Service at Restaurants and Bars in Four Regions

Yesterday, Governor Pritzker announced that Regions 7 and 8 are being placed into mitigation, effective Friday, October 23. Region 7 contains Will and Kankakee counties, and Region 8 contains DuPage and Kane Counties. Earlier this week, Region 5 - in southern Illinois - was placed into mitigation, effective today. Indoor service at restaurants and bars in these areas is being suspended.

Region 6 (east-central Illinois, including Champaign County) as well as Region 9 (McHenry and Lake Counties) are very close to mitigation as well. Region 1 (northwest Illinois) remains in mitigation.

For Regions 1, 5, 7, and 8 - if the positivity rate averages less than or equal to 6.5% for three consecutive days, then those areas will return to Phase 4 under the Restore Illinois plan, with resumed indoor service.

Click here to read the announcement.

Click here to review the mitigation measures from DCEO. Click here to review regional metrics across Illinois from IDPH.

Mayor Lightfoot Releases Chicago Budget Proposal

Earlier today, Mayor Lightfoot presented to City Council the 2021 Budget Recommendations. The $12.8 billion budget proposal includes closing a $1.2 billion Corporate Fund budget deficit in FY2021 – 65 percent of which is directly tied to the economic impacts of COVID-19.

The City identified more than $537 million in savings and efficiencies including $106 million in vacancy eliminations, layoffs and furloughs, nearly $114 million in non-personnel savings, and $59 million in savings achieved by sweeping aging revenue accounts. The City also generated an additional $54 million in healthcare savings without reducing benefits. To address the portion of the gap caused by revenue loss due to the pandemic, the City anticipates achieving $501 million from debt refinancing and restructuring by issuing general obligation and sales tax securitization corporation bonds for savings.

Along with reforms to government operations, savings and efficiencies, this budget includes nearly $185 million in increased revenues and reserves for FY2021. These include $76 million of TIF surplus funding, which represents an increase of $33.5 million over the 2021 Budget Forecast, $30 million from the City’s Rainy Day Fund and a $51.4 million property tax adjustment that includes a yearly CPI increase, and the collection of new property not previously included in the property tax base. Together with a loss of collection adjustment on the levy for pensions not previously budgeted, the $93.9 million proposed tax levy increase represents an estimated impact of approximately $56 annually on a median home valued at $250,000.

Two additional adjustments to existing revenues are included in this budget recommendation. First is a 1.75 percentage point increase to the Personal Property Lease Tax applied to non-possessory computer leases of cloud software and cloud infrastructure that brings this tax in alignment with the tax imposed on all other lease, rental or use of rented, personal property currently taxed at 9.0 percent. In addition, the 2021 budget calls for the Vehicle Fuel Tax on non-airline purchases to increase by $0.03 per gallon.

As budget season continues, the IRA will be working to protect the hospitality industry from various tax and fee increases that would further burden Chicago's restaurants and bars at a time when they can least afford it.

Click here to read more.

IRAEF Restaurant Employee Relief Fund Application Now Open

The IRAEF Restaurant Employee Relief Fund will provide one-time grants of $500 to support restaurant employees facing an unforeseen hardship due to COVID-19. Applications are now available in both English and Spanish.

At this time, due to our current resources and in an effort to help our most vulnerable, Restaurant Employee Relief Grants are evaluated in the following order of priority for restaurant workers who are:

• Diagnosed with coronavirus (COVID-19), or a caregiver for an immediate family member who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, or quarantined with a doctor’s note

• Out of work for three weeks or more without unemployment benefits

Please note that all qualified grant requests will be reviewed in the order they are received. Grants are awarded to eligible individuals based on available funds and limited to one per individual.

All additional inquiries can be directed to employeerelief@illinoisrestaurants.org.