Accountability
Forest Preserves
Public Safety
Cook County Budget
Forest Pres. Budget
Property Tax Appeal
Health & Hospitals
Policy Resolutions

We knew even before Cook County Board President Todd Stroger unveiled his 2007 spending plan that this year's budget process was going to be difficult -- and different. That's even clearer now that we've seen his (incomplete) plan, and the negative reaction to it by some in the county's status quo who fear deep but necessary -- or as they see it, dangerous -- cuts. Closing a $500 million gap without raising taxes will require some hard choices. It will require some shared pain. And it will require more leadership than we've seen so far.
Stroger proposes to fill much of the budget hole by refinancing debt and increasing efforts to collect hospital bills. He's also proposing a variety of other measures, including cutting 450 workers and about 1,000 vacant jobs, closing 16 health centers, eliminating obstetrics and gynecology services at Provident Hospital and dental services in the Public Health Department. Despite those measures, Stroger still needs to identify where he will cut another $100 million while preserving vital services. On Wednesday, a hospital official said the county may have to deny medicine to nonresidents.
Stroger deserves praise for demanding other elected officials live within the county's means and make the cuts necessary to balance the budget. But while he has been trying to send that message to the likes of State's Attorney Richard Devine and Sheriff Tom Dart, it's not clear he has gotten the message himself. He's hardly leading by example when he promotes friends like Cedric Giles or Carmen Triche-Colvin, wife of his best friend, and gives them huge raises. Or when he hands out double-digit raises to high-level bureaucrats while demanding front-line troops take it on the chin. If Stroger wants to cut essential county services, he'd better be ready to show that he has first eliminated patronage and other fat.
The same goes for Devine and Dart. Each has warned that the kinds of cuts that Stroger is demanding will devastate their offices. They should be prepared to make their case to the County Board and prove that their offices are fat-free. And if they can't make do with existing revenue, are they prepared to ask the public for higher taxes?
Stroger and the board have until the end of February to fill in the blanks -- where will the remaining $100 million in cuts come from? -- and approve a budget. Over the next six weeks, the board and other county officials will have to challenge everything and demand a meticulous defense for every dollar of spending while safeguarding the integrity of the criminal justice and health systems. They'll have to streamline, consolidate, set priorities, justify their decisions. It has been too long since we've seen that sort of process in Cook County government. That's partly how we ended up in this mess in the first place.