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Stroger proposes to roll three years of taxes into
one
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Daily Herald
By Rob Olmstead | Daily Herald Staff
October 18, 2007
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger doesn't want to
bother you next year with yet another request to raise your
taxes. Or the year after that.
After all, there's only going to be another structural budget
deficit in those years -- just like there's one this year.
So why not just make the tax increase really big this year
-- say a 266 percent increase in the sales tax -- and then
we'll be set for several years? So reasoned the president
in his 2007 budget address and news conference Wednesday.
"Are we going to try to fill our hole with one-time fixes,
come back next year and fight and argue again, or are we going
to try to look for something that will carry us down the road?"
Stroger said. "I think that is the argument that has
to be made. … We don't want to have to come back and
ask people for money every year."
Practically speaking, here's the math: The proposed increase
in the sales tax from 0.75 percent to 2.75 percent would raise
anywhere from $882 million to $1 billion -- depending on who's
estimating -- in additional revenue per year. But because
Stroger couldn't muster the votes for the tax by the state's
Oct. 1 deadline, the tax, if passed, would be collected for
only the last two months of 2008, netting the county just
$147 million this year.
Stroger's proposed increase in the gas tax to 12 cents per
gallon from the current 6 cents would bring in an additional
$72.2 million while an increase in the parking tax would net
$22.8 million more each year -- for a total of $242 million
more in 2008, enough to cover the projected deficit of $239
million.
But in 2009, the sales tax would be in effect for the entire
year, netting the county a full $882 million by the county's
own estimate. Add in the gas and parking tax and that's $977
million more in revenue than in 2007 -- an approximately one-third
increase in the size of county government's current $3 billion
budget.
That's not excessive, Stroger and county CFO Donna Dunnings
-- Stroger's cousin -- argued, because next year there will
be another "structural budget deficit." That re-occurring
deficit, which Stroger called "the elephant in the room,"
will grow because salaries and costs go up every year.
Cook County government has "once again embarked upon
a feeding frenzy," said Commissioner Tim Schneider, a
Bartlett Republican. "The elephant in the room isn't
the structural deficit. It's the waste and patronage and inefficiency
of Cook County."
Even Commissioner John Daley, a typical ally of Stroger, seemed
to concede between the lines that all of the taxes won't pass.
Instead, he predicted a "compromise" between the
Stroger camp and anti-tax commissioners.
Among other things, the new proposed taxes would pay to restore
1,130 jobs. Last year, Stroger cut 1,800 jobs to avoid a tax
increase.
Among the new jobs would be 207 new employees in Cook County
Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown's office. They would be
used to move the office to an electronic filing system already
present in many other courthouses. Other jurisdictions have
implemented the changes with few new employees or by outsourcing
the project.
Brown, whose office Stroger said will take 10 years to complete
the transition, did not return phone calls, but issued a news
release inexplicably saying she would be losing 16 positions.
The county's budget director, Jarese Wilson, however, said
the 207 figure was correct.
Schneider, a businessman who owns a golf course, noted information
technology in the private sector is typically used to save
money by decreasing staff, not to increase expenditures.
"Where's the savings?" he griped.
The other places the budget increase would be spent include
the Cook County sheriff's office to provide it with 273 new
employees, many of them required by a court decree to staff
the jail.
Both the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and the county's
Bureau of Health would receive more funding -- $14.1 million
and $707.1 million respectively.
The detention center is being transferred from Stroger's control
to the county's chief judge after children's advocates sued,
alleging patronage employees were abusing residents and siphoning
off resources that were supposed to be going to children.
The Bureau of Health is still under Stroger's control, but
is the subject of intense lobbying to be turned over to an
independent board as well. Again, complaints of patronage
draining resources from those the facility serves have prompted
the movement.
Robert Simon, the chief of the health bureau, has embarked
on a reorganization effort of the bureau in the past year
and said he has the agency down to a ratio of one supervisor
for every six employees -- a manager-to-employee ratio that
is more efficient than most in the health care industry.
Because of budget cuts of approximately $800 million last
year, several clinics were forced to close. Simon said he's
done what commissioners asked -- cut the fat. Now, it's time
to make sure the bureau can continue to provide essential
preventive medicine like mammograms and colonoscopies, which
are in a backlogged status, he said.
"I want to challenge (Commissioners Tony) Peraica, (Mike)
Quigley, (Forrest) Claypool," said Simon, referring to
three anti-tax commissioners. "Here's my challenge to
them. Show me what you would cut and then, after you show
it to me, allow me to respond. I will debate any of those
three individuals to show me what they would cut beyond what
we've already cut and yet preserve health care."
Stroger and Dunnings similarly argued that the significant
cuts last year demonstrate the county has gotten away from
patronage hiring and inefficiency.
Just a few moments after that pronouncement, however, Cook
County leaders conceded two of the three budget books they
passed out Wednesday were inaccurate and riddled with errors.
