When Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle briefed county commissioners and editorial boards in advance of her budget address Tuesday, she was flanked at many of the meetings by John Daley, chairman of the board’s finance committee, and Ramanathan Raju, the chief executive of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System.
Preckwinkle is a relative newcomer to the county board. But the inclusion of Daley and Raju showed she has a veteran’s instinct for the old Chicago tactic of signaling unanimity and sharing responsibility, especially for a budget that calls for widespread sacrifice thanks to service cuts, increased fees, and even some targeted tax hikes.
In the early hours of the budget process, the president’s efforts appear to have paid off. While some commissioners took issue with individual elements of the president’s proposal–most notably a plan to charge the estimated 100,000 residents of unincorporated areas for police services–many said on Tuesday that they agreed with the broad outlines of Preckwinkle’s $2.94 billion budget plan.
Preckwinkle’s budget proposal, which is down from $3.06 billion for the current fiscal year, calls for 1,057 county employees to be laid off and would increase taxes on alcohol and titled property such as cars and boats, increase fees for parking at county facilities, and expand the cigarette tax to include other tobacco products, such as loose tobacco. The president also maintained a commitment to repeal, on Jan. 1, 2012, a quarter cent of one-cent sales tax increase championed by her predecessor, Todd Stroger.
“I think the president is trying to move Cook County in the right direction,” said Commissioner Robert Steele. “I’m sure there are going to be a lot of amendments to some of the things she has recommended, but I think she’s on the right track on how we work a little bit more collaboratively.”
Commissioner Pete Silvestri agreed. “It’s not a pretty budget but it’s a real budget in that it reflects the need to cut costs, as opposed to raising revenues,” Silvestri said.
Daley has pledged to pass a budget by Nov. 18. The budget for the current fiscal year, Preckwinkle’s first as county president, was adopted in late February, months into the fiscal year that started last Dec. 1.
“President Preckwinkle has made fiscal responsibility a mandate for county government from her first day in office and this budget is evidence of someone who is willing to make tough choices to foster compromise, reorganize county government and do what’s right for the taxpayers of Cook County now and years down the road,” said Daley, who has become perhaps Preckwinkle’s closest ally on the board.
Preckwinkle thanked Daley in front of reporters, saying she had worked closely with him on the budget. “He’s a lifer here and I’m a newbie,” Preckwinkle joked.
Commissioner Larry Suffredin said he would have to examine the budget documents in detail before passing judgment. But he said he was encouraged that “there is a very significant cash flow balance from the end of this year, which means that we are not broke, we are in pretty good financial shape.”
Commissioner Tim Schneider was one vocal dissenter to Preckwinkle’s plans. He objected strongly to the president’s proposal to increase taxes and fees and to charge residents of unincorporated areas for police protection. “I think what we’re doing is, we’re shifting the savings in the sales tax increase that’s being repealed over to fee increases,” Schneider said.
Regarding the proposed increases on tobacco and alcohol, Schneider said he felt those would “create a greater divide between Cook County and other municipalities and counties outside Cook County. We need to level the playing field, not create a more uneven playing field.”
As for charging residents of unincorporated areas for police protection, Schneider said those residents do pay county taxes. “To say that they’ll have to pay $150 to pay for police protection, maybe then we should go to the hospital system and charge everybody who uses the hospital system $200 for each time they use the hospital system. There are many things in this county that not everyone avails themselves of. The people in my district don’t avail themselves of the county hospital system.”
Preckwinkle has said that 1,057 county employees could be laid off, though it is not clear how many jobs will ultimately be cut. She has said that if unions can agree to eight unpaid days off, including six county holidays, about half of the layoffs could be averted.
To date, none of the employee unions have agreed to Preckwinkle’s preconditions. Most of the unions this year agreed to 10 unpaid days off.
Anders Lindall, a spokesman for the Chicago-based Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees–which represents about 5,000 of the county’s 23,000 employees– said Tuesday he did not know “where these cuts may fall, what the impact on essential county services will be, and who may be targeted to lose a job.”
Preckwinkle said she is continuing to negotiate with the unions, and declined to forecast how things would end.
“The last time, the deal with the unions was reached in the middle of the night as we were putting the budget together, so I can’t predict,” Preckwinkle said.
