Boone County to consider fees for nonprofits serving food at fundraisers - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

By Ben Stanley
BELVIDERE — Nonprofit groups in Boone County may soon have to pay fees to the Health Department to serve food at fundraisers.

For years the Boone County Health Department waived food-permit charges for nonprofits, but the County Board recently backed a measure that changes course. The county is looking to implement permit fees for nonprofits but at a significantly reduced rate.

The County Board will consider the proposal at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Boone County Administration building. If approved, nonprofits would have to pay 50 percent of the permit fee normally charged to organizations.

Opponents of the proposal say charitable organizations will feel the pinch.

"By the time you (factor in) buying the food and everything, a lot of fundraisers don’t produce that much money," said Marion Thornberry, legislative director of the Illinois State Grange and moderator for St. John's United Church of Christ in Belvidere. The money raised "goes right back into the county to help the homeless and the needy in one way shape or form."

An annual permit allows a group to serve food at essentially as many fundraisers as it wants as long as it meets inspection standards. The price of the permit is based on several factors, including the level of risk associated with the types of foods organizations plan to serve.

According to Health Department records of food permits issued to nonprofits from Sept. 4, 2014, to Sept. 4, 2015, the average price of an annual or seasonal food permit was $216. If the new measure passes, nonprofits would be on the hook, on average, for $108 a year.

Bill Hatfield, director of environmental health for the Health Department, said the maximum fee the county can charge for a high-risk annual food permit is $450, which means the most a nonprofit would have to pay for a permit would be $225.

The new fees are estimated to bring in $9,000 a year.

Health Department officials believe they're one of the only counties in the state still waiving the fees for nonprofits; Winnebago County does not.

“One of the things that’s getting overlooked here is this is a user fee," Hatfield said. "A not-for-profit is choosing to drive down the food highway, and there’s rules, and inspections. They could choose to drive down a road that is not food. They could sell sports equipment. They could sell Popsicle sticks. They could do whatever kind of fundraiser they want and not even have to worry about a food permit. But they’re choosing to do food, and the general public needs to have assurance that the food that’s being offered meets the public health code ... and there are expenses involved."

Page 2 of 2 - Hatfield said the cost of health inspections has risen over the past 40 years as health codes expanded and more stringent rules were put in place.

"We have utilities, building expenses, electrical expenses, benefits, wages. There’s talking on the phone, there’s making permits, there’s issuing permits, there’s making notes in the files, there’s getting things ready to do the inspections, there's the cost of gas, there's time spent on site … most people just want to say, 'well that inspector’s getting $20 an hour and it took him a half-hour to do the inspection, my fee should be $10.' There’s a lot of things involved in the service that are not readily seen."

The Health Department receives tax money and government grants to operate each year, but it has been losing revenue. The county's tax base is dwindling as costs are rising. While waiting on frozen-by-the-budget-stalemate state funding, the department has been digging into its rainy-day fund to, among other things, support its staff.

In its fiscal 2015 budget, the department is projected to expend nearly $60,000 more than it will collect in revenue.

"The money we lose is going to continue to get higher," Administrator Cynthia Frank said. "We totally base what we charge for a permit on what it costs us. That’s how we come up with the fee. But now it’s gone up. So now we are losing even more money than we were before. And there’s more not-for-profits (obtaining free permits) ... we've got to get a handle on it."

But many nonprofits also rely on government funding, so additional expenses — such as permit fees on fundraisers — aren't exactly good news.

“My perspective on the situation is that they’re crazy" at the Health Department, Thornberry said.

Charging nonprofits for food permits will limit their resources, he explained, as well as their ability to effectively care for disadvantaged populations.

"If the nonprofits don’t support the homeless and don’t care for the homeless, who’s going to do that? If the nonprofits stop doing that stuff, it’s going to come back on the county."

Ben Stanley: 815-987-1369; bstanley@rrstar.com; @ben_j_stanley

Boone County to consider fees for nonprofits serving food at fundraisers - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL