Cook commissioners OK bigger staffs, deny mammogram
funding
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Daily Herald
By Rob Olmstead, Daily Herald Staff
February 27, 2008
On a day when a block of Cook County commissioners cried
out for tax increases to pay for health care, most of the
same commissioners chose to raise their own office staff budgets
by 26 percent rather than give up some of that money to pay
for poor women's mammograms.
The measure would have given up $1.1 million of the $1.6 million
increase for commissioners' staffs in Cook County Board President
Todd Stroger's budget and diverted that money to reduce a
backlog of mammograms scheduled at Stroger Hospital.
The measure failed with every one of the four women on the
board voting to keep the office budget increases.
"We're not willing to do that?" said an incredulous
Forrest Claypool, who voted for the measure, which failed
9-8.
Commissioners' $85,000 annual salaries would not have changed
either way. With an increased office budget, commissioners
could choose to add to their staffs or give their existing
staff members raises, or both. The office budget increase
concerns only staff salaries, not anything like office supplies
or travel and entertainment expenses.
Voting no on the mammogram measure were Gorman, Bill Beavers,
Jerry Butler, Earlean Collins, Joseph Moreno, Joan Murphy,
Peter Silvestri, Deborah Sims and Robert Steele.
Some of the commissioners said they were voting no because
they had their own amendments giving back their offices' increases.
One of those was Liz Gorman, who represents portions of Des
Plaines and Arlington Heights.
Gorman asked if some of her office budget increase could go
to mammograms but made no formal motion to that effect, meaning
the money just goes back into the general fund.
"You had your chance," cried out Claypool.
Right now commissioners have staffs of between 2½ and
five people. Full-time staff members' annual salaries range
from $39,000 to $88,000.
The 17 commissioners now have an annual staff budget of about
$5.5 million. So on average each commissioner gets about $322,000
for a staff.
The Cook County budget as it stands now would increase that
allotment to about $6.9 million, meaning an average of $406,000
for each staff.
If the board had diverted money to the mammograms, the annual
staff budget would change to about $5.9 million, or about
$348,000 for each staff.
While commissioners make an $85,0 00 annual salary as set
by law, for most the job is a part-time one. Some commissioners
are lawyers or own businesses, or have other full-time jobs.
As the board continued meeting Wednesday night, it remained
essentially in the same position it began the day, with a
huge gap between revenue and expenditures.
The day started with a $283 million deficit, and it was not
clear how much of that hole had been filled by some of the
small amendments passed during the day -- like a vote to sell
surplus county land, estimated to bring in $10 million or
so.
Stroger is proposing an increase of 1.25 percentage points
in the sales tax to balance the 2008 budget, but so far has
only been able to garner eight votes -- one shy of the nine
needed.
One of those voting no is Roberto Maldonado, who says that
a sales tax is too regressive and would hurt senior citizens
in his district.
Maldonado is instead proposing a quarter-point increase in
the sales tax and five alternative taxes. Maldonado would
increase taxes on jet fuel, heavy vehicles, and alcohol served
in bars. He would also increase the county's use tax by a
quarter-point and the county's hotel tax by one percent.
"I will not make a compromise on 1.25 percent,"
Stroger said. "We came down from 2 (percent)."
Another compromise offered came from Commissioner Larry Suffredin,
who offered to vote for some unspecified taxes, perhaps a
use tax, if Stroger would agree to placing the county hospital
into temporary trusteeship.
If Stroger doesn't take either of the deals and pass some
sort of budget by Friday night, he risks sending the county
into a constitutional quagmire.
By law, the county cannot levy any money as of March 1 without
having passed a balanced budget.
"We would have to go to court. We would have to ask the
court if we could appropriate money for the jail, the hospital
… (and) the sheriff's police," Stroger said.
If a budget is not passed by Friday night -- three months
into the 2008 budget year -- there is a serious question as
to whether the county, even if it passed a budget later, could
collect the $700 million in property taxes it now does, said
Patrick Driscoll, the Cook County state's attorney's head
of the civil division bureau. That would leave a gaping hole
in the county's $3.2 billion budget.
Asked if taking a lower tax increase than he wants would be
better than possibly losing that amount, Stroger said no.
"We need to fund the system … at a rate that we're
not coming back next year trying to figure out how we're going
to fund the system," Stroger said.
Stroger's tax would raise $400 million to 500 million annually,
more than the $280 million his administration needs for 2008.
Over-raising taxes, Stroger says, would allow the system to
operate without an additional tax hike in 2009 and 2010. The
latter is an election year.
Stroger's administration is "cutting off its nose to
spite its face," Commissioner Mike Quigley said.
