Governor JB Pritzker
Office of the Governor
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph, 16-100
Chicago, IL 60601

March 19, 2020 at 5pm

Dear Governor Pritzker,

Thank you for your Coronavirus leadership for Illinois and this afternoon’s announcement allowing a 60 day tax payment hiatus for bars and restaurants with gross sales of approximately under $750,000 a year in Chicago.  That relief will surely help the many hundred of small neighborhood bar or corner restaurant, smaller liquor licensed business struggling with sick leave/paid time off demands and cash flow challenges.

But, for the Chicago market, limiting this to businesses still leaves hundreds of locally owned Chicago bars and restaurants with annual sales tax bills of well over $75,000, but also large payrolls, sky high rents and property tax bills, and  a completely vaporized 2020 convention and trade show industry calendar.  The Hospitality Business Association of Chicago and the undersigned restaurant and bar owners implore you to raise the 2019 annual sales tax payment cap for eligibility under this program to at least $2,500,000.00 per year for liquor licensed bars and restaurants.

This change would allow these major, Chicago owned, not national restaurant groups, crucial leeway for the cash flow crisis they all face this spring.  March is when these Illinois owned hospitality businesses begin to refill their operating accounts after the long, slow winter months.  Expanding today’s program will help them survive the hardest spring these businesses have ever seen.  Thank you for what you did today, thank you for what else you can do by helping many of Chicago owned bars and restaurants keep on surviving and serving as major employers of Chicago and Illinois citizens.

Sincerely,