An institution in its neck of the woods, the Beverly Woods Restaurant shuttered its doors on Sunday after 63 years. Bill McGann, the owner of the family-owned restaurant in Cook County, Ill., said a combination of factors led to the restaurant’s closure, including rising costs due to burdensome government regulations

“Beverly Woods has suffered the effects of the financial crisis of 2008, the recent minimum-wage increase… and the controversial penny-per-ounce soda tax in Cook County,” reported The Beverly Review.

Despite thriving for decades, McGann said new county and city regulations made it more difficult to sustain the business - “[t]he beverage tax in Cook County… doubled his beverage expense ‘overnight.’”

Businesses and employees across Cook County are suffering from the county’s tax on beverages. We’ve already seen what can happen in Philadelphia, where residents are traveling outside the city to escape the beverage tax. Just like in Philadelphia, local businesses in Cook County will be hit multiple times by the beverage tax – first by the drop of beverage sales and again from increased administrative costs due to the complexity of the tax.

Cook County families and businesses deserve better from their elected officials than a burdensome tax that kills jobs and hurts local businesses.