County squabbles over budget;
Critics fear property tax hike on the table

Chicago Journal

November 2, 2005

By Chris Kirkham, Medill News Service

In a marathon meeting that lasted well into the afternoon Tuesday, the Cook County Board erupted into a heated debate over how to fill an anticipated $250 million budget shortfall for the 2005-06 fiscal year.

Board President John Stroger came under fire from Republican commissioners Tony Peraica and Carl Hansen about his approach to the budget, which commissioners must approve by March 1. The three yelled over each other for almost a minute after Stroger criticized the 2 percent across-the-board cuts in expenses pushed through by commissioners against his will last year.

Opponents fired back that the cuts were a last-ditch effort to prevent Stroger’s proposed tax increases. A coalition of Republicans and Democrats supported the county department cuts last year to avoid Stroger’s proposed 2 percent tax increase on hotels and restaurants.

In recent weeks Stroger has said he is considering all options for filling the budget gap, which critics say may be a sign he is inching toward proposing a property tax increase. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced earlier this week he would not seek a property tax hike.

"I am personally committed to not use property taxes as a source of revenue, but now I’m at the point where I have to put everything on the table," Stroger said during the meeting.

After meetings with the budget director and the heads of all county departments during recent weeks, Stroger said the staff has trimmed $50 million from the original estimate of a $300 million deficit.

After Stroger criticized last year’s department cuts during the meeting, Hansen fired back sarcastically: "I’m glad you noted that we saved the taxpayers some money. Anything you shoot my way I can shoot back."

Peraica, who announced earlier this year he will run against Stroger for County Board president, said the president is using his typical delay tactics to ram through tax increases.

Stroger ended the fracas by cutting off Peraica. In a news conference with reporters after the melee, an embattled Stroger called his opponents "liars" and said they have no substantive budget recommendations of their own.

He also pointed to the fact that the county has not raised property taxes in the past 10 years, but he said he has come to no conclusion about ways to fill the budget gap.

"I’ve cut as far as I can cut as president of the county board," Stroger said, saying most of his opponents are raising concerns for political reasons.

"These are people who are doing things for their own selfish aggrandizement."

He painted his opponents’ department cuts as being adverse to the healthcare needs of residents who depend on the county hospitals.

"I don’t play politics with poor people’s lives," he said.

Before the meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Mike Quigley announced in a news conference that he is dedicated to avoiding any tax increases.

Quigley, a Democrat who is running against Stroger in the March 21 primary, criticized what he called Stroger’s last-minute approach to the budget.

Last year Stroger did not release the budget to commissioners until early January, prompting several marathon budget sessions that came close to the March 1 budget deadline.

Getting tax hikes through this year will be even more difficult, Quigley said, given that it is an election year.

"These aren’t tax hikes halfway through a term, these are proposals he is forcing his allies to decide on weeks before their election," he said.

Quigley said he and other commissioners likely will push for more across-the-board cuts because of the tight timeframe to make budget decisions.

A more wide-scale retooling of county government is needed in the future, he said.

"This is a county that has never restructured itself since its infancy," Quigley said. "As a result, we’ve become a very wasteful, bloated government."

In other matters, Hansen and several other Republican commissioners petitioned the County Clerk’s Office to add more early voting sites throughout the county. Under a bill passed by the Illinois General Assembly earlier this year, counties are required to provide more early voting opportunities.

But early voting is only allowed at the six municipal courthouses throughout Cook County. Officials from the Clerk’s Office said elderly and disabled voters can still use one of the 120 absentee voting sites as long as they provide a reason why they cannot vote on Election Day.

Commissioners also approved a plan that would pinpoint mentally ill inmates at the Cook County Jail and redirect lesser offenders into community treatment programs.

Copyright 2005, Chicago Journal

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