More than a week after DeKalb city sales tax increased by 0.5 percent on Jan. 1, some local businesses still are unaware of the increase from 7 percent to 7.5 percent.

The increase is intended to bring in additional revenue for the city’s general operations, said Linda Wiggins, director of administrative services.

As of Friday, Sara Wilkins, a general manager at Tom and Jerry’s, 215 W. Lincoln Highway, knew nothing about a sales tax increase. Leslie Carnahan, a manager at Downtown Discs, 866 W. Lincoln Highway, said she also was unaware of the increase.

Wiggins said Illinois is under obligation to send business owners a notice of the sales tax increase and has done so. She said she is uncertain why some business owners have not been notified.

“This doesn’t excuse them from paying extra sales tax to the state at the end of the month,” Wiggins said.

Other business owners in DeKalb have been notified, and the new sales tax is in effect.

Abraham Mustafa, owner of Smoker’s World, 811 W. Lincoln Highway, said he estimates his customers will have to pay an extra 2 cents per pack of cigarettes and an extra 20 cents per carton because of the increase. Mustafa said such a small increase most likely will not hurt his business.

Rich Richter, owner of Hemispheres Music and Video, 1015 W. Hillcrest Drive, said he also has implemented the new sales tax in his store, forcing customers to pay an extra 4 or 5 cents for a CD, he said. Like Mustafa, Richter said the increase isn’t big enough to affect sales.

Richter received a call from his accountant about the increase but never received an official notice, he said.

Pete Lutz, owner of Pita Pete’s, 901 Lucinda Ave., said he agrees the increase is not significant.

“From my standpoint, it’s not a big deal as a businessman,” he said. “It matters that my customers get charged more, but I can’t change that.”

In some ways, the sales tax increase affects the business owners as well as the customers.

The increase forces DeKalb business owners to update cash registers and computer programs.

For some places, such as Pita Pete’s and Hemispheres, this process is simple and only takes a few minutes. But for the Village Commons Bookstore, 901 Lucinda Ave., the process is more difficult, manager Lee Blankenship said.

More than 22 computers have to be reprogrammed, along with Web page orders and invoice programs, he said.

Blankenship said the VCB received a notice from the state tax department and was well-aware of the increase. VCB employees worked New Year’s Eve to make sure every machine was reprogrammed by Jan. 1, Blankenship said.

NIU students will have to pay about $1.25 more for their books, he said. For example, if the cost of a student’s books was $250, he or she would’ve paid $267.50 with tax before the increase, Blankenship said. After the increase, the cost will go up to $268.75.

“As a society, we accept these things,” Blankenship said, “but when you add all the other small tax increases together, it makes a difference.”