Board eyes budget cuts after Stroger shuns smaller
tax hike
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Chicago Sun-Times
By Steve Patterson, Staff Reporter
February 28, 2008
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is unwilling to
budge from his demand to raise the county sales tax 167 percent
and is preparing to see county government shut down.
A majority of the County Board is willing to pass a series
of smaller tax packages, but those commissioners are also
demanding Stroger scale back his tax and spending plans.
Stroger said Wednesday that's not happening.
It's all building toward a midnight Friday deadline, and officials
say Stroger is already making plans to seek a court order
to continue operating the government without an approved budget
-- even though Stroger says that would leave "a black
mark on the County Board."
But dumbfounded commissioners insist Stroger can balance the
budget if he'd simply get away from his stance that it's a
big sales tax increase or nothing -- a tax increase that would
eventually give him far more funds than the county needs.
Yet there's a greater strategy at play in seeking the large
sales tax increase.
Commissioner John Daley conceded Wednesday that part of the
big-tax strategy is so Stroger can avoid having to come back
for tax hikes again in 2009 and 2010 --which is the year Stroger
is up for re-election.
Stroger's allies are concerned that the politically vulnerable
Stroger would be weakened if he's repeatedly asking for tax
hikes.
Commissioners, though, are unwilling to give him any more
than he needs to balance this year's budget.
So with no movement by Stroger and a majority of the board
unwilling to grant him authority to raise the county sales
tax from .75 percent to 2 percent, commissioners tabled any
further tax talk until today.
They spent Wednesday night poring through a series of cuts
--showing the deep division in the 17-member board.
One sign of the division was shown in a 9-8 vote to give commissioners
an extra $60,000 for office staff, rather than shifting the
money to a program that provides women with mammograms at
county health centers.
