There are many reasons why the 17-member Cook County Board has refused to approve tax increases to balance the undisciplined 2004 budget proposed by Board President John Stroger. But the main reason for that rare show of support for taxpayers is the resolve of Earlean Collins–a board member who, thus far, has refused to buckle to Stroger’s heavy pressure.
The county has no new budget because Stroger hasn’t been able to muster nine votes for tax increases that would make his job easier. Give Stroger more tax revenue and he can avoid laying off any of the county’s political payrollers.
Instead, a majority of board members–Collins and eight others–thus far have insisted that Stroger instead balance his budget by cutting spending. Several of those board members are angry that Stroger’s tax hikes would fall hardest on the poor and middle-class minority families who can least afford them.
The result has been a stalemate. On Tuesday, though, board members will be asked to help Stroger’s budget by approving unneeded and unfair hikes in county sales and cigarette taxes.
This is exactly the situation anticipated in a Tribune questionnaire to County Board candidates before the 2002 election. The questionnaire asked: “If forced in future budget years to choose between cutting the county’s payroll or raising taxes, which one would you choose, and why?”
Twelve members of the current board unambiguously responded that they first would cut the payroll, because raising taxes should be a last resort. The 12 are Collins, Deborah Sims, Joan Patricia Murphy, Peter Silvestri, Michael Quigley, John Daley, Forrest Claypool, Larry Suffredin, Gregg Goslin, Carl Hansen, Tony Peraica and Elizabeth Ann Doody Gorman.
Many taxpayers infuriated by perennial tax increases to support the county’s sclerotic operations and vast patronage army will be watching to see who among the 12 told the truth–and who lied. (Watch this space for a name-by-name tally.)
Rejecting the cigarette tax hike asks more of Collins: Public health is her special concern, and she thinks the county tax discourages smoking.
What voting for a cigarette tax hike definitely will do is give Stroger an excuse not to fully ratchet down spending. This vote isn’t about who likes cigarettes least. It’s about demanding that a wasteful local government tighten its belt before extorting any more money from citizens.
Suffredin and Quigley offer a compromise Collins would be smart to embrace. If the board first makes Stroger balance his budget without a cigarette tax increase, Suffredin and Quigley would back the same increase later–and insist that every penny of new revenue go to the smoking cessation or respiratory health programs Collins values. Among the beneficiaries: poor children afflicted with asthma who rely on county care.
It’s ironic that Stroger’s hope to raise any tax Tuesday rests on pressuring Collins to switch sides. Early in the 2002 campaign cycle, Stroger grew so frazzled over her refusal to be his puppet that he obliquely threatened to unseat her.
Collins didn’t cave then, and the hope here is that she doesn’t cave now. If she continues to stand strong for her tax-strapped constituents, she’ll be tough for any future opponent to defeat.
Rejecting Stroger’s tax hikes is the beginning of reform, not the end. Board members have proposed scores of amendments to fix the 2004 budget. In December, Collins issued a report that laid out a good strategy for “Balancing the budget without increasing taxes, massive layoffs or major reductions in essential services.” She had her priorities exactly right. For the longer haul, Quigley has detailed an overhaul of county government that would shrink its costly overhead.
The eight County Board members who have stood solidly with Collins against any tax increases quietly pray that she doesn’t betray them Tuesday. They’re counting on the force that has carried them this far–Earlean Collins’ resolve–to demand a balanced budget first.
