July 15--Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Wednesday explained to commissioners why she wants them to vote to raise the sales tax by 1 percentage point.
Preckwinkle was making a rare appearance at a Finance Committee meeting ahead of the vote. Her pitch may have been designed for public consumption, as it came after commissioners believe she has locked up the nine votes from the 17-member board she needs to pass the tax hike.
Preckwinkle listed the ways she has reduced county costs, including cutting payroll, since being first elected in 2010. "But today is not about current county operations, it's about the county's future," she added.
The extra tax money is needed to restore financial health to the county's government worker pension fund, cover debt payments incurred before her election and stop the diversion of motor fuel taxes meant for roads and bridges to the county's court system, Preckwinkle said.
"We're talking about a plan that will put Cook County on a long-term path to financial stability," she said.
Shortly before the meeting, Commissioner Liz Gorman, R-Orland Park, said she would resign to take a job as director of state and local government affairs for a Fortune 100 company. She declined to disclose the company.
Gorman said she planned "as of now" to vote against the tax increase.
Commissioner Stanley Moore, D-Chicago, said he could not sleep the night before, and had prepared speeches for and against the tax hike, but this morning decided to vote for the tax increase because of his "faith" in Preckwinkle.
Among those testifying against the tax hike was Craig Horwitz, owner of H. Horwitz Co. jeweler in Water Tower Place, just one of many retailers to speak out against the proposal.
"Please say no to the public becoming a money faucet each and every time the government says it needs money," Horwitz said before displaying a faucet with a dollar symbol on it. "This is not how one rebounds from a three-year recession."
Officials with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, and the Civic Federation, a non-partisan budget watchdog group, also testified against the sales tax increase.
Civic Federation President Laurence Msall noted that his group often has praised Preckwinkle for her efforts to streamline government, but said a sales tax increase should not be considered before Preckwinkle unveils her 2016 budget proposal later this year.
"We cannot support a 1 percent increase in the sales tax that is not tied to an actual budget proposal," said Msall, before dismissing Preckwinkle's argument that the county needs to act on pensions because the state won't. "All of us are frustrated by what's going on in Springfield . . . but that does not justify and does not mandate that you go forward on a sales tax increase."
Meanwhile, union representatives, politically connected pastors, public health system doctors, county employees and retired county workers lined up to speak in favor of the increase.
"I believe the yield that will be derived by virtue of the tax will benefit our most vulnerable citizens, our retirees," said Rev. Leon Finney Jr., pastor of Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church and president of the Woodlawn Community Development Corp.
The county sales tax is 0.75 percent and would rise to 1.75 percent. That would take the total sales tax rate in Chicago to 10.25 percent, among the nation's highest.
Preckwinkle ran and won in 2010 on a successful pledge to roll back what remained of a previous penny-on-the-dollar sales tax hike, but now says the county needs more money to make ends meet. Preckwinkle has pledged to consider scaling back the sales tax increase if her pension plan gets approved by the state. But the proposal has been stalled in the General Assembly for more than a year, and it's unclear whether it would withstand an inevitable legal challenge.
The Finance Committee meeting was expected to last for hours, with some 50 people signed up to testify. That will likely be followed by speeches from commissioners, then a vote. After that test vote, Preckwinkle will call a board meeting for a final vote to approve the tax hike.
Opponents have offered up amendments to complicate or prevent passage of the tax hike.
Commissioner Richard Boykin, D-Chicago, wants to change the rules so it takes 12 votes, instead of nine, to approve a sales tax hike. That two-thirds standard already is in place if commissioners want to raise county property taxes greater than the rate of inflation or 5 percent.
Boykin also is proposing an amendment that would automatically revoke the sales tax increase, should it pass, if the state enacts Preckwinkle's proposed changes to the county worker pension system, which could reduce future costs.
Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston, is offering up an amendment that would require every penny collected through the tax hike to be paid into the pension fund.
Meanwhile, Commissioner John Fritchey, D-Chicago, wants the sales tax increase to automatically be repealed after two years. Also working to defeat the sales tax were the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
After taking office in late 2010, Preckwinkle was able to reduce a 2008 county sales tax increase, approved in the middle of the night, by reducing spending and cutting staff while increasing more targeted taxes.
Though Preckwinkle said she'll make further spending cuts, she argues the sales tax increase is needed to restore financial health to the county's underfunded pension plan, make payments on debt incurred under predecessor Todd Stroger and stop the diversion of some motor fuel tax revenue to the county's court system. Preckwinkle aides estimate the county would receive an additional $474 million a year through the sales tax increase.
hdardick@tribpub.com
