Budget
Passes 16-1 after Finance Committee Deals with 64 Proposed Amendments; A Number
of Jobs Saved
Following the final meeting of the Board’s Finance Committee dealing with
the 2012 budget, the Cook County Board convened and voted 16 to 1 to pass the
budget, as amended. Comm. Beavers
was the lone dissenter. This vote
took place around 4:30 pm.
Thus, for the first time in many years, the County Board completed its
work during business hours and prior to the start of the fiscal year, which
begins December 1. The Cook County
web site touts that this is the earliest a budget has been passed since
1995.
Prior to the Board taking its vote, the Finance Committee met to consider
some additional revenue proposals and 64 proposed amendments that had been
submitted prior to the deadline on Wednesday, Nov.
16.
Amendments Save Positions
As a result of these amendments, a number of jobs originally slated to be
eliminated by the proposed budget, were reinstated by cutting money from
non-personnel budget categories, such as training and use of outside
contractors. One of the more
controversial ways to provide additional money to retain jobs was the use of
what is called a “turnover
adjustment.” This is a credit
to a department's budget to reflect the fact that not all the positions that
have been budgeted will actually have people employed in them throughout the
entire year. For example, if an employee leaves, it might be a month or more
before that position is filled. So, if the annual salary for that position was
listed in the budget for $60,000 and if there was an assumption that the
position would be unfilled for one month, then the turnover adjustment for that
position would be $5,000, or 1/12 of the annual
salary.
Comm. Schneider expressed concern about the liberal use of turnover
adjustments in a number of amendments, recalling that several years ago when he
and then Comm. Claypool proposed saving positions by using a turnover
adjustment, they were told that that was not a sound or prudent practice. Budget
Director Andrea Gibson said that utilization of a turnover adjustment was
reasonable, as long as the amount was not too great. In one instance, the Budget
Department stated it was opposed to a proposed amendment because the turnover
adjustment was 50% of the total yearly amount of the positions to be
retained. And in that case, the
Finance Committee voted down the proposed amendment. Where the Budget Department approved the
use of turnover adjustments, the amendments were
approved.
Among the positions saved were those in the offices of the State’s
Attorney and Public Defender, as well as positions under Facilities Management
as a result of utilizing an assumption that more revenues than originally
assumed in the proposed budget would be realized in the Unknown Heir Legal
Settlement fund. The County Clerk’s
budget resulted in there being an excess of $400,000 in the Election Fund, which
was then used to add positions to the Board of Review. During the department meeting with the
Board of Review, the 3 Commissioners stated that if they could get additional
funds to restore these positions, they would be able to get out the
2nd installment tax bill on time (for the first time in 34
years!). However, the statements
were not nearly as strong at today’s meeting: simply that the restored positions
would help in getting the bills out on time.
In order to save jobs, the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Dorothy Brown,
obtained an agreement from the non-union personnel in her departments to take 10
furlough days in 2012. These are
the only furlough days to be taken by any personnel in 2012.
Because none of the unions had agreed with the President’s proposal that
some of the holidays be unpaid, a number of amendments that would have
reinstated additional positions were withdrawn.
IT
Shared Services Department Created
Amendment 36 revisited a controversial concept from the 2011 budget
discussions, except this time the Finance Committee voted to create an IT
(Information Technology) Shared Services Department under the Bureau of
Technology, which reports to the President. It is supposed to be a shared services
center to help the offices of all elected officials and departments throughout
the County, with the notable exception of the Health & Hospitals System,
which for now, has been left out of the consolidation. This amendment is still
controversial, however, and there was discussion that some elected officials
were against this, while others were supportive. During the debate, it was stressed that
this is a small start and it would be reviewed and revised after 90 days. The goal is to reduce IT costs and
create computer systems that are more efficient and compatible with other County
systems.
Increased
Wheel Tax
In addition to the other revenue proposals that were approved at the Nov.
14 meeting (see the report from that day in this Observer Blog), the Finance
Committee also approved the doubling of the wheel tax (i.e., the cost of vehicle
stickers) for those who live in unincorporated Cook County. For example, the annual fee for small
passenger vehicles went from $40 to $80. This revenue proposal had been deferred
at the Nov. 14 meeting.
The
Process
There was a concerted effort by Commissioners to assist those in the
audience (as well as their fellow Commissioners) by summarizing the nature of
the amendments being considered.
Unlike past years, “floor amendments” (that is, amendments introduced for
the first time during the meeting) were not allowed. However, there were a number of
“substitute” amendments which were passed out to the Commissioners and which the
public did not have access to.
While from the discussion it appeared that these substitutes contained
only corrections generally, it is unfortunate that there was no way for the
public to be sure of this. The
League has been urging that the Board room have screens and projection equipment
permanently installed to assist the Commissioners, as well as the public, in
knowing what is being voted on.
Comm. Gainer complained that the 64 amendments were not available to the
Commissioners (and the public) until after 10 pm the night before. This presumably was due to the fact that
the Budget Department first vetted all proposed amendments to check for
problems, but this raises the issue as to whether there should be more time
allowed between the deadline for submitting amendments and the meeting to vote
on them.
-- reported by Karin Hribar and Priscilla Mims
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