Cook County
Finance Committee Begins Review of the Proposed 2012 Budget; Concerns Raised
over Some Proposed Fees and Taxes; Impact of Recent League Initiatives
Seen
Department of Finance; Department of
Administrative Hearings; Department of Technology; Offices under the President;
and Bureau of Administration
All of the areas and
departments appearing this day are under the President. The Finance Department began by presenting an
overview of the proposed Operating Budget of $2.943 billion (down from $3.055
billion in 2011). There is also a 5-year
Capital Improvement Plan for 2012 which proposes $180 million to be spent in
2012, all from funds from bonds issued in 2009 and 10; and $143 million for
Capital Projects.
Proposed Fees and
Taxes
During the course of
the day, Commissioners expressed concerns about several of the taxes and fees
that were proposed by the President in order to balance the budget. The proposal to have unincorporated areas either be annexed,
contract for police services, or pay an additional amount for police services
provided by the County Sheriff through a “special service area” tax appears to
be among the most controversial. Andrea
Gibson, the Budget Director, explained that her department had worked with the
Sheriff to identify that the incremental costs for the Sheriff to provide
policing service for the unincorporated areas is $5 million. Comm. Silvestri noted that areas can opt out
of a “special service area” with a 51% vote of the residents. Some of the questions asked: Why wouldn’t
the residents all vote to opt out? Would
the Sheriff really not provide service there?
The Sheriff is currently providing policing service for Ford Heights
which eliminated its police force several years ago because it couldn’t afford
to pay for its own. So how will the
County distinguish between Ford Heights and the unincorporated areas?
Expect much more on
this topic when the Sheriff appears to discuss his proposed budget.
Several
Commissioners, including Collins, Suffredin, and Schneider, expressed concern
over the proposed increase in the county’s alcohol tax. The Finance Department was asked to provide
information on the current and proposed total tax on alcohol (including federal,
state, and local, as well as county portions) and compare that total to the
totals in other major urban areas, as well as adjoining counties. They don’t want to vote to approve and then
find out that the County would then have the highest liquor tax in the U.S., as
happened several years ago when they voted to increase the sales tax by a
penny.
Comm. Schneider
expressed concern over the proposed new auto amusement device tax on machines
that require payment to be used by the general public, such as jukeboxes and
slot and video poker machines. Comm.
Schneider said that many bars will have 5 or more of these machines, and if the
tax on alcohol is also raised, these small businesses will really be
hurting.
Comm. Suffredin
criticized the President for not mentioning that the budget contains a proposal
to align Cook County and the City of Chicago’s parking tiers for charging the
county’s parking tax on public garages for daily, weekly and monthly parkers,
which results in an increase in the parking tax. He said this will also affect suburban
garages, which won’t necessarily be in alignment, and may hurt suburban downtown
shopping districts.
Several
Commissioners also wanted to know if there was any consideration given for
exempting jurors, state’s attorneys, and public defenders from the proposal to
institute parking fees at county parking
facilities. Comm. Gainer asked that
information be provides as to whether the proposed fee was set above a threshold
that would result in the County having to pay Chicago’s parking tax.
Furlough
Days
This controversy was
touched upon since also on this day the Interim Comptroller issued a revised and
corrected report on who had not been taking these unpaid days off. Apparently, about half the county’s employees
have been deemed “essential” by their departments and thus have not taken any.
While it was expected that a number of employees of the Sheriff and the Health
& Hospitals System would be exempt from taking all the furlough days since
some of their services are offered 24/7, there is concern that other departments
are not taking the days. The Committee
will be getting further information by department, and Chairman Daley said that
the Finance Committee should ask the departments about the status of furlough
days when the departments appear during this budget review. The Committee may want to amend the
departments budgets for 2012 if they can’t justify not having the furlough days
taken in 2011. All employees under the
President are taking the furlough days.
Note there is no
proposal for furlough days in the 2012 budget.
There is a proposal to have one unpaid county-wide “shut down” day (the
day after Thanksgiving in 2012). In
addition, the Administration has offered to cut the number of proposed layoffs
(about 1,000) in half (to about 500) if the unions will accept 8 of the existing
holidays as being unpaid. Thus far, the
unions have not agreed to this.
League Impact on Special Purpose Funds and
Transparency
In September, the
League provided the Commissioners its Final Report on its Study of the County’s
Special Purpose Funds, along with an updated chart detailing each of the
funds. Representatives of the County
League and local Leagues also met with a number of the Commissioners to discuss
the concerns as to whether the Commissioners were paying sufficient attention to
these funds, including whether they were still needed. It was clear on this first day of hearings
that the League has had an impact.
The Budget Director
noted that one special purpose fund for the Homeland Security Department had
been eliminated. Comm. Silvestri
questioned several people as to whether the county needed all 36 of the
remaining funds. The one for Animal
Control was highlighted because it has a significant fund balance. The department head explained that she hopes
to utilize this fund balance at some point to build a facility to provide a
number of services.
With regard to
transparency, in the meetings with the Commissioners, the League noted that
there appears to be more and more information being provided to Commissioners
outside the public meetings. Chairman
Daley stated that, in response to the League’s concerns, for the first time the
Commissioners’ questions to departments and the written responses that are
provided outside of the budget hearings will be posted on the county’s web site
for the public to see.
Technology
During the budget
process for fiscal year 2011 (that took place in Feb.), Comm. Fritchey noted
that he had offered an amendment that would require all the technology personnel
under the different elected officials to work together under the direction of
the County’s Technology Chief (currently Greg Wass). This amendment did not pass because of the
opposition from the other elected officials.
Comm. Fritchey stated that he intended to offer this amendment again, and
asked whether Mr. Wass still supports such a consolidation. Mr. Wass said that he supported such a move
with regard to infrastructure (i.e., hardware) and enterprise functions (e.g.,
e-mail). However, Mr. Wass indicated
that applications for particular areas would not be ready for consolidation,
noting that the Technology Collaboration Group, which was set up in lieu of the
consolidation proposal, and which brings together representatives from different
technology personnel throughout the county to share information about what they
are doing and planning to do, may be sufficient at this time.
Overall
Impression
Despite all the
questions and concerns expressed by Commissioners, it was clear that the
Commissioners are pleased with a number of the initiatives being taken by the
Administration and all of these departments that are under the President in
order to improve service, create efficiencies, and increase collaboration among
different departments and between the County and City and the County and suburbs
in order to reduce costs and improve services.
-- reported by
Priscilla Mims
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