Chicago mayor pushes to keep 1% grocery tax that state will drop

CHICAGO - Illinois retailers are pushing back on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's call to reinstate a 1% grocery tax in Chicago .

This comes as the city faces an October deadline to decide what to do.

Retail groups on Wednesday said it's sort of like death by a thousand cuts.

The backstory:

Gov. JB Pritzker essentially put cities like Chicago in a trick box by eliminating the 1% grocery tax as part of his budget. That money had been distributed to local governments.

Now these governments have to decide whether to implement their own grocery tax to make up for the lost revenue.

The Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA) said a grocery tax, on top of a potential delivery credit card swipe fee, are too much for grocers to handle.

"The message is that they have to consider t