County Sales Tax Rollback Would Mean Loss in Revenue, Jobs, Services

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by Lesley R. Chinn

After Cook County Commissioners failed for a third time to pass a sales tax rollback in attempts to override Cook County Board President Todd Strogers veto, county finance experts said if the measure had passed, a half-a-penny rollback would have forced massive layoffs and cost the County hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

The county sales tax rate remains at 1.75 percent, despite a majority of the county boards attempt to reduce it to 1.25 percent. Fourteen votes were needed to override Strogers veto to rollback the sales tax, but the vote came up short at 13-4. Commissioner Deborah Sims, who previously supported a sales tax rollback, voted along with Commissioners Jerry Butler, William Beavers, and Joseph Mario Moreno to sustain the veto. Commissioners Robert Steele, Larry Suffredin, Tony Peraica, Forrest Claypool, Bridget Gainer, Liz Gorman, Earlene Collins, Timothy Schiender, Greg Goslin, Joan Murphy, John Daley, Pete Silvestri, and Edwin Reyes voted for a sales tax rollback.

The countys sales tax increase of a penny-on-the-dollar was approved in late February 2008 and Stroger has argued the measure is necessary to preserve the health care system and to maintain public safety. Without the sales tax, the county would have lost $140 million in revenue in 2010, based on information provided by Budget Director Takashi Reinbold, who said the financial outlook would be even worse under that same scenario in 2011, where the county would have lost $200 million in revenue.

Where are you going to eliminate that $140 million from? So the chunk is going to come from the health care system and a lot of the services that we provide for Cook County, added James Ramos, a Stroger spokesman. Public safety and health care are two of the largest components of the countys budget. Over 50 percent of the countys budget goes towards public safety while 30 percent goes towards health care, based on data provided at www.cookcountygov.com.

The sales tax, Ramos explained, prevents future cuts in revenue, programs, and a decline in services. If we dont have the sales tax, we would start off our budget year with a deficit of almost $200 million. That just doesnt make any financial sense. Why would you have a balanced budget and then take away a penny off the dollar and then be in a deficit from day one when you didnt have to be there, Ramos argued?

Ramos also pointed out that every department in the county is already running with fewer employees. He pointed out the sales tax helps retain employee jobs.

When you have programs that are cut and have [fewer] employees, youre going to [have] more delays and thats going to add a lot of stress on the employees, Ramos stated. With the sales tax, it would help benefit employees because they are able to run their departments [more] efficiently. With the addition of new technology, merging functions, and new ideas, it helps to challenge staff to become more innovative, he said.

Without the sales tax, agencies such as the Office of the Chief Judge; Office of the Cook County Circuit Court; Office of the Cook County Sheriff; and Office of the States Attorneys Office would have had to take between a 10 to 19 percent cut in their budgets for services, and programs, resulting in numerous layoffs of non-court-mandated employees.

It would be one of these things where [ President Stroger] could say to the chief judge, you need to cut a percentage from your budget. And [the chief judge] would have to etermine to cut a program or employees, Ramos stated.

When Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, who is a candidate for Cook County Board President against Stroger, was asked about the impact of a sales tax rollback on her office, she said a proportion of the rollback cost to the County that would have been allocated to the Clerks Office had not been determined. Without that figure, we are not able to assess the number of layoffs that might have been necessary, if any. Basically, the County needs to use creative measures to replace the revenue that would be lost if there is a tax rollback so that no County Office is adversely affected, she said.

But if there are six clerks in the Cook County Circuit Court Clerks Office that help people with marriage licenses, birth, death, or divorce certificates, Ramos said it could mean a possibility of a 50 percent reduction of staff if there were no sales tax.

Commissioner Peraica, who supported the rollback said Stroger could have done without the increase if he would have agreed to cut a payroll bloated by patronage workers. However, a review of county documents found a total of 24,404.2 budgeted full-time equivalent positions in Fiscal Year 2009. Of these, 2,173.9 are in departments that report to President Stroger, 7,414.8 are in the Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS). More than 50 percent of the total budgeted positions for 2009, however, fall under control of

the 12 elected County officials and not Stroger. Of these, 55.1 percent are from just four elected County officials including the Sheriff with 6,916.6 positions; the Chief Judge with 3,227.6 positions; the Clerk of the Circuit Court with 1,936.2 positions and the States Attorney with 1,363.3 positions. Only nine percent of the countys budgeted positions fall under the offices under Stroger and 30 percent under CCHHS.

In response to Peraicas remark, Ramos added the county needs the revenue and Stroger has encouraged members of the County Board, including Peraica, to come up with ideas for revenue streams. However, Peraica has not come up with ideas that would cover the countys deficit, he said.

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