2011 Budget Passed, along with Rollback of ¼ Cent Sales Tax in 2012 and ¼ Cent in 2013
Board Meeting
President Preckwinkle called the special meeting of the Cook County Board meeting to order. Two proposed ordinances were voted upon and approved. The first one reduces the County portion of the sales tax by ¼ cent effective Jan. 1, 2012, and the second one reduces the tax again by ¼ cent effective Jan. 1, 2013. With these ordinances, along with the one passed by the Board that reduced the sales tax by ½ cent on July 1, 2010, the 1 cent increase to the sales tax passed several years ago will be totally rescinded. Each of these ¼ cent reductions are expected to reduce revenues to the County by approximately $60 million. President Preckwinkle expects that this lost revenue will be made up by an improving economy that will produce more revenues from the remaining County sales tax and more revenues generated by fees such as those from an increase in home sales, along with further cost reductions resulting from structural changes to County government that the President anticipates occurring. Commissioners Beavers, Collins, Murphy, Sims, and Steele voted against both ordinances. Commissioner Steele was concerned about voting now so early in this fiscal year, while the others expressed concern that the loss of sales tax revenues would mean a loss of services for people in their districts.
The Board Meeting was then recessed so the Finance Committee could continue its consideration of the proposed 2011 Budget. Following the conclusion of the Finance Committee's proceedings, the Board meeting resumed in the early hours on Saturday and the Board approved the Budget, as amended.
Finance Committee Meeting
While this observer was present, the Committee voted on 26 proposed amendments to the proposed Budget. All of these Proposed
Amendments are posted at http://legacy.cookcountygov.com/secretary/ , along with the additional 33 Floor Amendments that were debated and voted on in the afternoon and late into the night after this observer left. The posting of all these proposed amendments is a positive sign of increased transparency.
The following of the original 26 amendments were approved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19, 23, 24, and 26. The others either failed to pass or were withdrawn. Some of the amendments were corrections to what had been presented in the proposed budget; and some were revisions due to further negotiations, such as changes to the budgets of the State's Attorney and Public Defender.
William Batts, Chair of the Health and Hospitals System (HHS) Board expressed his concern over the number of proposed amendments affecting the HHS budget, which the HHS Board had approved and submitted to the Cook County Board as part of the County's overall budget. He stated that the HHS Board felt it was not appropriate for the County Board to amend the HHS budget if the County Board truly intends for the HHS Board to be independent. Commissioner Sims expressed her desire that the HHS Board become fully independent by having the power to tax and raise the money it needs, as opposed to needing to rely on the County's revenues. Chairman Daley stated that the County Board had continuously showed its support for the independence of the HHS Board, but that it was clearly appropriate for Commissioners to question the HHS budget and spending priorities. Several of the amendments that were approved regarding the HHS budget were actually corrections that the HHS Board wanted. Several other amendments which the HHS Board opposed were withdrawn or failed, including one proposed by Commissioner Beavers (#14) which would have reduced the salary of the Director of Multicultural Affairs by $60,000 in order to increase the budget of the Public Defender's office. The amendment failed with 8 yes votes (Beavers, Gainer, Gorman, Murphy, Reyes, Sims, Steele, and Fritchey) 8 no votes, and 1 absence (Silvestri).
One of the longest debates took place regarding Amendment 25 sponsored by Commissioner Fritchey, which would have placed all the information technology (IT) personnel who are scattered in different departments under different elected officials in a new department that would be under the direction of the County Chief Informational Officer, Greg Wass (who reports to President Preckwinkle). Mr. Wass stated that he was not opposed to this proposal, and that he felt it would save the County money in the future to house the IT function in a single place so IT resources and expertise could be shared for the benefit of all the workings of the County. There has been much discussion in the past among Commissioners as to the need to do such a consolidation. However, Treasurer Pappas sought an opinion from the State's Attorney's office as to the legality of doing this without the approval of the applicable elected officials. As a result of the opinion, which expressed serious legal concerns, and the statement by the Treasurer that she would file suit if the Board approved this amendment, several Commissioners who support consolidation in principle, voted no, and the Amendment failed on an 8 (Fritchey, Garcia, Gorman, Goslin, Schneider, Sims, Suffredin, & Beavers) to 9 vote. Expect this issue to come up again in the future.
Amendment 26, which was adopted after considerable discussion, provides for each Commissioner to have the same budget of $350,000 (which, per reports in other news sources, was increased to $360,000 by subsequently approved Floor Amendment 18). As originally requested by the Commissioners, the budgets would have ranged from $286,000 to $464,542; and the range in the President's proposed budget (which had recommended the lesser of 16% below each Commissioner's 2010 budget or the Commissioner's request) had ranged from $270,000 to $386,615 (not including Daley's budget which is higher due to his duties as chair of the Finance Committee). Commissioners Collins, Murphy, Sims, and Steele opposed the amendment because they wanted a higher allocation than $350,000. This is the first time in many years that there is parity among the Commissioners' budgets.
-- submitted by Priscilla Mims
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