Will County Treasurer Seeks Policy on Cash Payments as U.S. Mint Discontinues the Penny

Briefs: Will County Board Finance Committee Meeting | April 7, 2026

Article Summary: With the U.S. Mint ceasing production of the penny, the Will County Treasurer’s Office is asking the County Board for a policy on how to handle cash payments for property taxes, sparking a debate over rounding down tax bills to avoid shortchanging residents.

Property Tax Payments Key Points:

• The U.S. Mint’s discontinuation of the penny means the county will eventually run out of the physical coins to provide exact change for cash transactions.

• Treasurer Tim Brophy asked the committee to decide whether cash payments for property taxes should be rounded up or rounded down to the nearest nickel.

• If the county rounded down all cash payments, the total lost revenue is estimated at $3,000 to $4,000 annually.

• The committee agreed to pursue a policy that strictly rounds down cash transactions, while maintaining exact, to-the-penny billing for electronic and check payments to protect disbursements to other taxing bodies.

The Will County Board Finance Committee on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, engaged in an unusual but necessary debate regarding the future of cash transactions, following the U.S. Mint’s decision to discontinue production of the one-cent coin.

Will County Treasurer Tim Brophy approached the committee seeking preemptive guidance on how his office should process physical cash payments for property taxes once their supply of pennies is exhausted.

“The pennies are discontinued. Eventually, we will run out,” Brophy said. “We still have a bunch, but eventually Brinks will not have any to bring us, and we’ll have to start making a decision whether to round up or down for those people that walk in with a tax bill that has a few pennies on it.”

Brophy requested direction on how to treat a taxpayer walking in with an odd-numbered bill, such as one ending in 23 cents. He asked the committee whether the county should charge the taxpayer two cents more to reach 25 cents, or forgive the three cents and round down to 20.

While the exact fiscal impact depends on how many people pay in cash, Brophy estimated the absolute maximum cost. “If every tax bill we send out walked in and paid in cash, and we had to round that tax bill the total four cents, this might amount to $20,000. We’re not going to get anywhere near that… in reality, it probably means more like three or $4,000.”

Committee Chair Sherry Newquist (D-Steger) immediately voiced support for rounding down in the taxpayers’ favor.

“I’m fine with rounding down. I think it is a better message than rounding up,” Newquist said. “I do believe, like I’ve already been to some restaurants and stuff, they don’t charge pennies and they usually round down.”

Committee member Daniel J. Butler (R-Frankfort) agreed, noting that because the policy would only apply to the subset of residents paying in physical cash, it serves as a negligible but positive gesture. “It’s like giving them a little cash incentive for coming on in. It’s very minimal,” Butler said.

A brief debate ensued over whether the rounding policy should apply to all payments, including checks and electronic transfers, to eliminate the penny entirely from the county’s billing. However, Brophy strongly cautioned against altering the electronic calculations.

“We bill about $2.4 to $2.5 billion dollars to the penny. Now, if you’re telling me to round all that, now we’ve got to make decisions about which taxing bodies are getting [shorted],” Brophy warned. “They’re not getting their exact levy that they’ve extended. Now we’re giving them different amounts, and so it makes balancing difficult.”

The committee reached a consensus to maintain exact, to-the-penny accounting for all non-cash payments and disbursements to taxing bodies, while exclusively rounding down physical cash transactions at the Treasurer’s counter. Brophy will draft a formal resolution codifying the cash policy to present at next month’s meeting.