Commissioners trim budget, but Stroger says battle not over yet

Daily Southtown

February 24, 2005

By Jonathan Lipman

Cook County Board President John Stroger said he would use his rarely exercised veto power and may even sue to block cuts that board members approved to the county budget Wednesday night.

"It can be resolved, but ... you're dealing with a ... group of nuts," Stroger said during a break in Wednesday's all-day-and-all-night budget hearing. "This group wants failure at any cost. ... If this procedure is not properly administered, the court may help us with monitors and making sure all the rules are followed properly."

Earlier in the meeting, Stroger told commissioners, "We're going to get some lawyers ... and if we have to go to court, we're going to court. ... I'm not going to let a few people beat down all of us."

With personal insults flying and parliamentary arguments delaying debate for hours, Cook County commissioners argued late into the night as they tried to trim a $73 million hole in the 2005 budget.

As of 8 p.m., commissioners had cut the budget gap to $30.6 million and still had more than 40 proposed budget amendments to consider.

Stroger has advocated new taxes on hotels, restaurants and coin-operated video games to balance the budget. Led by a group of renegade Democratic commissioners, the board has resisted those taxes but has found no consensus on what to cut instead.

As the process continued Wednesday, commissioners voted to approve cuts in overtime and to consolidate duplicated departments in the bureau of health. Stroger promised to veto those cuts, worth $7 million.

That promise could throw the entire budget process into a confusing muddle as the county races towards a Monday deadline.

Commissioners have to pass a balanced budget by the end of the month or face a government shutdown. No one seemed to know Wednesday what will happen if the board passes a balanced budget but Stroger vetoes part of it.

"It's not clear to me because it has never happened before," said the board's attorney, Pat Driscoll. "It would be bad."

Commissioners would need 14 votes to override a veto, which is unlikely based on the one-vote margins in most of the board's decisions.

As it has all month in budget hearings, arguments turned personal, in one case swinging south suburban Commissioner Joan Murphy's vote.

Murphy (D-Crestwood), a Stroger supporter, said she would oppose the president in backing a reorganization at the bureau of health. But after Stroger's loudest critic, Commissioner Anthony Peraica (R-Riverside), accused Stroger of "a failure of leadership," Murphy flipped her vote.

"I'm so angry about these attacks on the president, whom I happen to believe is a good leader," Murphy said. "I don't think it belongs here, and because I am so angry, I'm voting 'no.' "

As he has throughout the budget proceedings, Stroger asked Peraica and other opposing commissioners to "stop all this craziness" and support his budget requests.

Opposition Commissioner Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) said that commissioners who are afraid to cut because of the effect on county employees should think about the alternatives.

"If you vote 'no' (on cuts), you're voting for new taxes and you're putting that maid out of work ... because of the convention that doesn't come to town," Quigley said.

In other changes to the $3 billion budget approved Wednesday, commissioners agreed to adjust their expected fee revenues by $8.4 million and made cuts to the budgets of elected officials that they agreed upon after weeks of negotiations.

Commissioners plan to reconvene their meeting today to consider their next step.

Copyright 2005, Daily Southtown

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