By banking on new federal money that's not yet guaranteed and making relatively minor cuts, the Cook County Board reached a tentative 2009 budget deal Tuesday—without $220 million in borrowing initially sought by board President Todd Stroger.

The compromise, $2.9 billion spending plan was reached during an eight-hour meeting of the Finance Committee, which includes all 17 county commissioners, setting the stage for its likely approval at a special board meeting next week.

But commissioners must still find a way to pay $104 million in unfunded pension obligations and raise about $260 million, most likely through borrowing, for construction projects and technology upgrades.

The tentative agreement was forged from a series of compromises among Republicans, regular Democrats and self-styled reform Democrats. It came after the committee balked at Stroger's plan for a massive bond deal to cover some of the county's day-to-day operations, which critics blasted as outrageous on the heels of his successful push for a penny-on-the-dollar increase in the sales tax last year.