The Naperville City Council may expand the city’s food and beverage tax to include drive-thru-only businesses and food trucks.
“The reason we’re here tonight is to talk about the possibility of including those concepts that we never even thought about 20 years ago, and those are drive-thru-only type concepts that are now becoming more and more prevalent,” Mayor Scott Wehrli said at the Tuesday council meeting.
A number of drive-thru-focused restaurants have set up shop in Naperville in recent years. A drive-thru/walk-up Chick-fil-A opened in Naperville earlier this year, and drive-thru-only coffee chains 7 Brew and Scooter’s Coffee opened last year, the former of which smashed business records and generated long lines of traffic.
National drive-thru coffee chain Dutch Bros is seeking to open a location in Naperville’s Market Meadows Shopping Center at 75th Street and Naper Boulevard. Council members have held off on approving it, wary of the traffic problems that might result from the business with only drive-thru lanes and a walk-up window.
Restaurants, bars and other businesses selling prepared food and drinks in Naperville are required to collect a 1% city tax on such items. Money collected is primarily used to support the city’s Special Events and Cultural Amenities (SECA) program, which helps fund nonprofit social and artistic events. The tax does not apply to businesses in downtown Naperville, which pay a separate 1.75% tax to cover the cost of construction and maintenance of downtown parking.
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In 2024, the citywide food and beverage tax generated $6.3 million for Naperville, according to Naperville Finance Director Ray Munch. Adding drive-thru only businesses would generate an estimated $200,000 in new revenue.
Council members were mostly supportive of the measure Tuesday, though there were concerns about adding the tax to more businesses.
“I get it. It’s not fair. It seems like a loophole (that these businesses don’t pay),” Councilman Josh McBroom said. “I have some issues with how the food and beverage tax is being spent right now so I’m not going to support adding more money to the pot right now.”
McBroom has recently been critical of SECA, arguing that some of the organizations that receive funding engage in political advocacy. There are no rules dictating SECA recipients must refrain from political actions, but city staff was directed Tuesday to review the program.
The food and beverage tax also exempts food trucks and food festival vendors, but Wehrli argued that food trucks with more permanent locations in Naperville should be taxed.
“I’m not necessarily talking about food trucks who pop in to Naperville once and leave town,” he said. “I’m more interested in food trucks who set up shop here and literally run a restaurant out of a parking lot, either all summer or all year.”
How the city would enforce a tax for food trucks was unclear. Munch noted that city staff has started looking into how different communities with food trucks apply food and beverage taxes and found that results varied.
“In that regard for food trucks, I think it’s a fair point that we should have some equity between different types of food servers,” Councilman Patrick Kelly said. “I’ve got a little bit of concern about the trucks that are in the middle, maybe that go to some festivals, go to swim meets 10 to 12 times a year.”
Councilman Benny White expressed a similar concern, adding that food trucks that operate out of a more permanent location may also be paying a fee to be in that location. If a food truck is operating outside of a Menards, for example, it may be paying Menards to be in that location and Menards may be paying a tax, he said.
“Little things like that are things I think that also need to be considered as well, therefore they’re not getting double taxed because they’re paying Menards, now they’re paying a tax on top of that,” White said. “It may be fair, it may not be, but that would be part of the research I think we should take a look at.”
Councilwoman Mary Gibson also said that if the food and beverage tax was going to apply to food trucks consistently operating in Naperville, the tax should apply to food trucks at festivals as well. Wehrli agreed.
“We have some brick-and-mortar restaurants in Naperville who have their own food trucks and are arguably charging food and beverage tax when that food truck goes out,” Wehrli said. “So to have somebody who has no presence in our community come to our community and not charge that same tax, that just doesn’t seem fair.”
The council will revisit amending the tax and ways to include food trucks at a future meeting.