More budget talk...

Stroger to Use Homeland Security Funds to Upgrade SUV

Fox News Chicago, June 27, 2008

County's taxes

Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger defended raising Chicago's sales tax to 10.25 percent, the highest in the nation ("Courage in Cook County," Voice of the people, March 9).

Stroger claims the county has not raised sales taxes in 16 years.

But from l996 to 2007, the county's various sales taxes rose from $417,942,648 to $749,716,330.
Stroger's latest tax increase will add an additional $426 million annually, nearly tripling the tax burden in a dozen years. Few families have seen their incomes rise by 300 percent over the same period.

Making matters worse, Stroger has raised taxes to record levels while the economy is sputtering toward recession.

The U.S. economy shed 63,000 jobs in February, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Coupled with higher unemployment, escalating bankruptcies and record home foreclosures, Stroger's record-breaking sales tax increase will only accelerate the economy's downward spiral.

-- Forrest Claypool, Cook County commissioner, Chicago
The Chicago Tribune's Voice of the People
March 18, 2008

Forrest exposes continued massive patronage in county health system

See Forrest identify over 800 patronage workers on Fox News here.

Hear Forrest on WLS's Roe Conn show here and his WLS Radio Connected to Chicago "absentee debate" with Todd Stroger here

Todd Stroger has slashed preventive care in county hospitals and clinics. That's the price poor patients pay for a hospital system dominated by politics. Read more here.

Commissioner Forrest Claypool and the executive director of Illinois Y-ME, a leading breast cancer awareness and support organization, condemned the Stroger administration’s latest cuts in medical care, this time breast cancer screening services for poor women. Read more here.

And see Forrest talk with Fox News about doctors and healthcare at Stroger Hospital here.