Village officials have ratcheted up their efforts to get a separate ZIP code for their town.
On Monday members of the Finance Committee OKd spending $50,000 on a lobbyist to persuade the U.S. Postal Service to make the change.
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The village shares ZIP codes with neighboring communities such as Roselle, Palatine and Schaumburg. As a result, village officials say, sales tax revenue is sometimes inadvertently misdirected to Schaumburg, because many Hoffman Estates businesses have a Schaumburg ZIP code.
Last month, Hoffman Estates was notified by the Illinois Department of Revenue that more than $877,000 in sales taxes was mistakenly sent to Schaumburg during the first six months of this year. Village officials blamed the mix-up on the shared code. Schaumburg is repaying Hoffman Estates.
Village officials said other communities in the same predicament have gotten their own ZIP code in part by having a lobbyist.
“It’s not unusual to have lobbyists,” Village President William McLeod said. “It’s a question of being more effective and making a better case. … What the lobbyist brings to the table is that they know a lot of people.”
If trustees approve hiring a lobbyist, officials would put the job out for bids and hope to get responses from Illinois- and Washington-based lobbying firms and law firms.