Stroger Proposes Cutting Sales Tax Increase by 25 percent
by Lesley R. Chinn
Last Wednesday, in front of theBoard of Commissioners, CookCounty Board President ToddStroger supported rolling back lastyears penny sales tax increase by25 percent. Stroger said he expectsthe County board to move quicklyto approve his proposed ordinance.
If the board votes on the measurein May, it would reduce the salestax from 1.75 to 1.5 percent. Morethan $100 million will be generatedin new revenue. Stroger said theCounty would get some additionalresources and not have to worryabout paying back notes borrowedto pay for last years budget.Under the plan, the changes wouldnot be effective until January2010.
The new federal stimulus fundsand negotiations with the stateregarding public health care havemade the roll-back possible, hesaid. It allows us to change thebudget that we passed inFebruary, Stroger stated. In 2007, Stroger supported budgetarycuts of 17 percent to addressa record $500 million deficit. Thefollowing year, the board agreed toaddress the need for new revenueby increasing the Countys portionof the sales tax from .75 percent to1.75 percent. That was the firstincrease since 1992. The alternativewould have been to slash servicesin order to cut costs.
In our proposal, when weincreased the sales tax by one percent,we stated in our resolutionthat if we had more than what weneeded, we would rebate some ofthe money, Stroger explained.
Noting that Cook County onlyrepresents a small amount of thesales tax, Stroger said that even ifthe county took a whole amountoff the sales tax, it would still totalabout 8 percent. Were not themajority of the tax at all, he said.
Stroger said the stimulus fundingamount for the county is beingnegotiated for services such asconstruction and health care. Ifwe didnt know that we were gettingstimulus money, we wouldntbe doing this [rollback]. Werepretty sure that the government isgoing to do what it says its goingto do.
Since announcing his proposal,Stroger has faced criticism from4th Ward Ald. Toni Preckwinklewho is expected to run against himnext year in the race for CookCounty Board President.Preckwinkle questioned Strogers judgment in pushing through a onepercent increase in the first placeand criticized him for proposingthe 25 percent rollback after a newcounty budget had already beenpassed.
Some people criticize me whenI cross the streetIm just doingwhat I said I would do if the [rollback]situation came up, Strogersaid.
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