The Cook County Board president elected next month will face intense pressure to quickly repeal what’s left of the sales-tax hike put in place under Todd Stroger, the lame-duck incumbent.
All three candidates in the Nov. 2 election pledge to get rid of the half-percentage-point increase, but differ on when. Democrat Toni Preckwinkle says it will take time because the county faces a budget shortfall of at least $300 million next year.
“Given the ineptitude over there, it may be much more than that,” said Preckwinkle, Chicago’s 4th Ward alderman. “We’re going to do this, but I don’t think it makes sense walking in the door to say you’re going to do it when you don’t have a clue as to how dire the circumstances are.”
Republican Roger Keats and Green Party hopeful Tom Tresser say it’s just not that hard. They contend the shortfall is a sham, the product of a bloated Democratic machine patronage system designed to reward cronies, friends and family.
Both men have pledged to seek repeal of the remaining half-cent at the start of their terms. Within a year of taking office, each said they would cut 10 percent of the county’s nearly 24,000 jobs.
“The first thing, Day One, after I fire 150 of Todd Stroger’s friends and relatives, I’m going to hire 25 new assistant inspectors general, and I’m just going to turn them loose everywhere,” said Keats, 62, a former state lawmaker.
Tresser, 58, a community activist best-known for his opposition to holding the 2016 Summer Olympics in Chicago, has put forward what he calls a “10 percent solution” aimed at cutting costs by that much.
It would involve a forensic audit of government finances, evaluating every job, starting from square one on all contracts and working to eliminate tax increment financing districts that both he and Keats said unnecessarily hurt the finances of local governments across the region.
“The whole county is under suspicion in my opinion, and we’re going to really turn ourselves inside out and really expose ourselves thoroughly to the public in order to win their trust back,” Tresser said.
Preckwinkle contends you can’t cut first and analyze later. She noted the vital services provided by county government, which spends more than $3 billion a year to oversee one of the nation’s largest criminal justice systems, a vast public health network, hundreds of miles of roads and more than 1.3 million property tax bills.
So getting rid of the half cent sales-tax increase, which raises about $200 million a year, will require establishing far more government efficiency, she said. Based on that logic, she’s pledging to repeal it before the end of a four-year term.
Preckwinkle, 63, has established policy teams to look at making government more efficient, and their reports are expected sometime this month.
She already has spoken in general terms about long-range financial planning, fighting corruption that includes patronage hiring, stressing regional economic development and helping establish alternative, less-expensive sentencing options for non-violent offenders.
But Tresser and Keats question whether Preckwinkle’s acceptance of about $220,000 in campaign contributions from the Service Employees International Union will make it tough for her to dump unionized county workers.
“It wasn’t just SEIU that decided it wanted to back a winner,” said Preckwinkle, who defeated Stroger and two other candidates in the February primary. “Nothing was asked, and nothing was offered.”
Preckwinkle said she continues to bring in significant campaign funds. After raising about $1.6 million for the primary, she expects to get about $1.2 million for the general election.
Both Keats and Tresser expect to fall well short of that amount, in part because its tough to convince donors they can win. A non-Democrat hasn’t held the office in more than 40 years.
“It would be extraordinary if Preckwinkle were not elected,” said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “She has all the advantages.”
So Keats and Tresser have gone after Preckwinkle using much of the same rhetoric, contending she’s “the new face of the Democratic machine.”
Preckwinkle calls the claim “preposterous.” It took her three tries to unseat the incumbent alderman before she was elected to the City Council 1991, she notes. Since being elected, she’s often voted against Mayor Richard Daley-backed initiatives, including privatization of the city’s parking meters, she adds.
She also points out the Cook County Democratic Party did not endorse her in the primary, though it does now. Preckwinkle, in turn, is backing Board of (Tax) Review Chairman Joe Berrios, county chairman, in the assessor race. Berrios is facing an independent challenge from County Board Commissioner Forrest Claypool, D-Chicago, who is running on a reform platform.
Preckwinkle said Berrios has worked hard to open up the party to minorities and women, but she declined to say if Berrios should resign his post as part chairman if he’s elected, as Claypool has suggested.
hdardick@tribune.com
