Joliet eyes hike in local gas tax

City staff has proposed raising local fuel taxes in Joliet by a penny a gallon for gasoline and 7 cents a gallon for diesel fuel.

If approved, the increase would mark the second local tax hike in five years to pay for city vehicles. The Joliet gas tax was a penny a gallon before it was increased in February 2020 to pay off bonds used to buy new city vehicles.

The city tax on fuel now is 4 cents a gallon.

The increase, if approved by the City Council, would hike the Joliet tax to 5 cents a gallon for gasoline and 11 cents a gallon on diesel fuel next year.

Council members did not comment on the proposed gas hike at a Tuesday meeting when it was included in a presentation on the proposed city budget for 2025.

Finance Director Kevin Sing said the proposed tax hike would pay for ongoing purchases of squad cars, fire engines, ambulances, snowplows and other city vehicles and equipment.

The tax increase would generate more than $1.6 million a year, Sing said. More than $1 million would come from the higher tax on diesel fuel, and $545,000 would be generated by the 1-cent increase on gasoline.

“If we were to go forward, we would look to allocate 100% of the increase to vehicle replacement,” Sing told the council.

All but a penny of the current 4-cent tax is used for vehicle replacement.

The tax pays for a $4.5 million bond issued by the city used to fund vehicle replacement at a time when many of the city squad cars and public works trucks were corroded with rust. But Joliet since 2000 has been regularly updating its fleet of vehicles.

In September, the Joliet Fire Department donated three of its aging ambulances to the Cook County communities of Robbins and Ford Heights, low-income suburbs that are rebuilding their emergency medical services.

Those ambulances dated back as far as 1997.

Fire Chief Jeff Carey at the time noted that the cost of a new ambulance starts at $400,000, and that officials from Robbins and Ford Heights reached out to Joliet after hearing the city was getting new ambulances.

Sing said the higher fuel taxes would be used to provide an ongoing source of money for new vehicles for the city of Joliet.

“We have over 750 vehicles and pieces of equipment in our fleet,” he said.

Pointing to the cost of vehicles in the city fleet, Sing said a police squad car costs $75,000 when fully outfitted, and fire trucks can cost between $1.2 million and $1.8 million.