The Hammond City Council is getting ready to enact a food and beverage tax. An ordinance to implement the one-percent tax was introduced to the city council Monday, after the Indiana General Assembly granted the city permission to do it during this year's session.
Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. stressed that the tax would be on prepared food, not groceries. "However, you go to Strack & Van Til and you buy a sandwich at the deli and you buy a bottle of water with the sandwich at the deli, I think the sandwich will have the one percent on it. The bottle of water will not," McDermott told council members. "Maybe the bottle of water does, as well, if you're buying it in one transaction."
The revenue would then be used to build a downtown West Lake Corridor station and expand the Hammond Sportsplex.
The legislation also lets the money be used to upgrade the Pavilion at Wolf Lake Memorial Park, but McDermott isn't sure there would be enough left over. "I love that idea, but I think that that's a much bigger discussion," McDermott said. "We're not going to be able to finance that on our own in Hammond. I think that we'd have to talk to other entities or even a private entity like Live Nation. Why wouldn't they want to be part of something like that?"
Members of the public can weigh in on the proposed tax during a public hearing on Monday, June 24 at 5:00 p.m., before the council makes a final decision. The tax wouldn't take effect right away. The state law requires at least a full month between the ordinance's adoption and when it starts being applied.
