Geneva will delay collecting its new places-for-eating tax after restaurant, bar and deli owners protested it.

The 2 percent tax on food and beverages was supposed to start Jan. 1. But aldermen plan to vote Monday to push that back to May 1.

“We respectfully remain opposed to the tax right now,” Fiora’s Restaurant owner Mike Anastasio said at a city council meeting Monday night. “We know you are well-intended, as are we. We would like to work with the city in looking at alternatives that we think would address your needs and ours.”

He spoke on behalf of 42 owners.

They are upset city officials did not consult with them ahead of adopting the tax.

The owners say the tax will make them less competitive with restaurants in other towns and that there won’t be enough reimbursement from the city for the cost of updating their accounting and cash-register software.

They contend it unfairly singles out the food-service industry.

And they say the city has not proved it actually needs the money, estimated at as much as $1.5 million a year.

The owner of Nosh restaurant went so far as to print a notice on the bottom of receipts warning patrons of the coming tax and listing which aldermen voted in favor of it.

Mayor Kevin Burns said Monday that the delay was a “compromise.”

The council first discussed the tax in March and then again in August and September. It approved it in October.

The Geneva Chamber of Commerce supported the tax, in lieu of charging an extra sales tax on all businesses in the downtown district. The council favored the tax in lieu of asking voters to increase the citywide sales tax. City leaders feared asking for a sales tax increase on the same ballot as the Geneva Public Library’s request for money for a new library would cause one or both measures to fail.

The restaurant owners’ group said the library matter shouldn’t have been considered when deciding whether to have a sales-tax referendum.

Almost all the protesting businesses are in the downtown. None are on Randall Road, where there are chain restaurants.

Alderman Tom Simonian, who is running for mayor against Burns, voted against the tax because it didn’t identify exactly what the money would be spent on. Simonian wanted it designated for specific capital purchases and specific projects.

Simonian also wanted to delay it until June 1. The library referendum could indicate how willing people are to increase taxes, he said. And new aldermen elected in April should be part of the discussion, he said.