Your Stroger-Daley Tax

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Chicago Tribune Editorial
June 30, 2008

"Revenue is reform."

— Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, asserting in February that higher taxation would reform county government.

On Tuesday the cost of taxable items you purchase in Cook County will increase by a full percentage point. Chicagoans will awaken July 1 to the highest sales tax in the nation. Cook suburbanites will face sales taxes several percentage points higher than at stores in collar counties. Expect merchants in those counties to post more of the big signs that boast: "No Cook County Taxes."

This tax increase by such a wasteful and shabbily run government amounts to grand theft without the police pursuit. Expect to hear plenty about it this week: Newspaper staffs, news broadcasters, morning show hosts—they've been gathering information and taping interviews.
Now, what can you do? How can you kill this increase in a regressive sales tax that injures everyone, but especially lacerates the poor, the unemployed and the working-class citizens of this metropolis?

Here's the to-do list:

• First, keep your memory fresh. Cook County didn't sneak up on you.

Stroger originally proposed $888 million in tax increases to fill a projected budget shortfall of $234 million for 2008. Don't try to understand the overreach for unneeded hundreds of millions—that's how Stroger and his cronies think. On Feb. 29, 10 Democrats on the 17-member County Board approved a $426 million sales tax increase, mostly to appease two public employee unions that greatly influence which Democrats get elected to county offices. With that vote, several of the 10 broke written vows to raise taxes only as a last resort—not their first resort.

• Second, appreciate how this increase became Your Stroger-Daley Tax: John Daley, head of the board's Finance Committee, encouraged passage of the tax hike and voted for it. Four days later, his brother, Mayor Richard Daley, publicly endorsed the increase. The Daleys co-own Stroger's tax increase.

• Third, beware what comes next. On March 31, Stroger cousin Donna Dunnings, the county's chief financial officer, told the City Club of Chicago that Stroger's government needs . . . still more tax revenue. This after passing a budget that, despite Stroger's campaign pledge to slash the county workforce, instead added more than 1,100 jobs.

• Fourth, think summer 2009. Relentlessly. There's barely a year until candidates begin collecting petition signatures to get their names on ballots for the February 2010 Illinois primary. Which means those of us who live in Cook County have about 12 months to find electable, reform-minded challengers for Stroger and the County Board members who enacted this tax increase. To find challengers who, when they take office in December 2010, will reduce Cook County's budget—and its tax burden—to what citizens and employers can afford.

• Fifth, spend quality time this holiday weekend confronting every Democratic politician you encounter at public events. They'll be everywhere, trying to bond with you. Ask each pol these questions:

1) In 2006, did you endorse Todd Stroger or any of his 10 County Board taxers: William Beavers, Jerry "Iceman" Butler, Earlean Collins, John Daley, Roberto Maldonado, Joseph Mario Moreno, Joan Patricia Murphy, Deborah Sims, Robert Steele or Larry Suffredin?

2) In light of this tax hike and this economy, do you see the enormity of your mistake?

3) How do you plan to undo your damage by helping us replace these county officials and reduce taxation in Cook County?

But don't expect someone else to repeal Your Stroger-Daley Tax. You and your neighbors have to make that happen. Get going.