Since 2002, when they booted five supposedly secure Cook County Board members out of office, citizens haven’t had a clear measure of whether their blunt message was heard.
That clear measure could come Monday as the board weighs a budget for the fiscal year that began Dec. 1.
The county budget originally proposed by Board President John Stroger was tied in knots for several weeks by nine board members who refused to approve Stroger’s proposed sales tax increase and new lease tax on rentals.
Those proposals are dead. The question the 17 County Board members now face is whether to approve a budget that instead includes an 82-cents-per-pack cigarette tax increase. The answer is no. This government shouldn’t get one more nickel until it modernizes its antiquated operations and unloads many of its patronage payrollers. Budget amendments that would cut enough fat to balance this year’s budget are also on the table–and are far superior alternatives to any tax hike.
The swing vote in favor of a cigarette tax in the board’s Finance Committee of the whole came from Earlean Collins. She was one of several board members who fell for the empty platitude, propounded by board member Roberto Maldonado and others, that revenue from the cigarette tax would help treat needy people with respiratory problems. That lie got exposed when Maldonado and several pals–including Stroger and John Daley, chairman of the Finance Committee–rejected an amendment by board member Larry Suffredin that would have diverted all cigarette tax revenues to health uses.
Why did a suddenly unnerved Maldonado, Stroger and Daley not support such a worthy cause? Because they couldn’t afford to. They want the cigarette revenue to feed their bloated budget. All those needy people with respiratory problems? Forget it.
That vote was a surprising lapse by Collins, who to that point had held firm against any tax hike. After getting thoroughly chumped on the cigarette tax, she threatened to block its final passage if she didn’t see major reforms in Stroger’s budget.
Commissioner Collins, those had better be some serious and already completed reforms–not a lot of malarkey about all the good things that will happen, if only the board first approves the tax hike.
What’s more, if you help Stroger pass his budget by raising a tax rather than by demanding cuts in expenditures, you and several other board members will be reneging on a pledge you made, in writing, in your 2002 campaigns.
That sort of nonchalance about sticking to promises gives voters, and the next generation of County Board candidates, insights into who next needs to be defeated.
The next generation of candidates? For an election in 2006? Absolutely. Several reform-minded politicos are plotting to recruit good candidates after next month’s Illinois primary. One question being asked right now is which incumbents will be easiest to defeat.
Monday’s budget vote will be the clearest measure yet of how to answer that question. It’s a vote sure to stick with those who would raise a tax, rather than demand a spending reduction of $58 million from Stroger’s budget of almost $3 billion.
