Jan. 12--Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Monday said she will make government more efficient for businesses and improve regional cooperation to boost economic development in her second term, but she acknowledged it will be tough to cover the growing cost of the county's debt payments and pay for expensive fixes to the pension system.
Preckwinkle gave a speech to the City Club of Chicago about her first-term achievements and laid out a blueprint for her second four years in office. Asked afterward about the likelihood she will be forced to raise taxes, Preckwinkle said only that it will be "a challenge" to meet the county's financial obligations.
"We have significant challenges, both around the spike in our debt obligations and our pension obligations, and my charge to our chief financial officer is that he has to do everything he can to be creative in figuring out how to address these problems," she said.
Predecessor Todd Stroger's unpopular sales tax hike provided an easy way for Preckwinkle to score points with residents in her first term. She rolled back the remainder of that tax increase and undertook what she has called "data-driven decision-making" to shore up the county's finances and improve services.
After an election in which she was unopposed, Preckwinkle could have a more difficult second term because she will have full ownership of the looming financial decisions.
Preckwinkle crafted a $4 billion budget for 2015 that includes no new taxes, fines or fees. She has warned that the 2016 budget will be far trickier to balance because debt payments will increase and the county could need to come up with $144 million more to pay into the county workers retirement system if she gets the pension fund changes she has asked for from the General Assembly.
"I can't predict now, because we don't even have a pension bill, how much it's going to cost or what it's going to take, but it's going to be a real challenge, I'll say that," she said Monday.
When she was sworn in last month, Preckwinkle promised to press ahead with attempts to overhaul the county criminal justice and health care systems she has focused on since taking office. In particular, Preckwinkle has said she hopes to persuade state lawmakers to end the automatic transfer of juveniles to adult court to face serious criminal charges.
Currently, defendants ages 15 and 16 charged with first-degree murder, rape, sexual assault or armed robbery with a firearm are automatically transferred to adult court. Preckwinkle last month called that "a deeply unfair practice that disproportionately impacts youth of color." She said she wants to give more discretion back to judges, a system that she believes would be more fair and cut down on the costs of keeping people locked up.
"I'm simply advocating that our laws reflect what we all know, that adolescence does not end at 15 years of age, and therefore we should allow all young people a hearing in front of a judge in order to determine whether or not to transfer that person to adult court," she said Monday.
jebyrne@tribpub.com
Twitter @_johnbyrne
