Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Chicago Sun-Times
by Lisa Donovan

The Cook County Board voted Tuesday to repeal the controversial sales tax increase it pushed through a year ago, but don't start counting your pennies yet: Board President Todd Stroger is threatening to wield his veto stamp.

A political showdown is in the works. Stroger is vowing to reject the rollback of his additional penny on the dollar today -- saying it would mean cutting medical service for the poor.

"He's going to veto it tomorrow. You can quote me on it," Stroger spokesman Sean Howard said Tuesday. But commissioners behind the rollback are angling for the 14 votes to override his veto.

The measure to roll back the tax increase passed 12-3 during Tuesday's regular County Board meeting. Two of the 17 commissioners, Democrats Earlean Collins and Deborah Sims, were absent.

Reached later, Collins said she wanted to talk with commissioners before commenting. Sims could not be reached for comment.

Stroger pushed for a smaller giveback of the tax increase, thanks to federal stimulus money. He says rolling back the tax increase entirely will cost the county a projected $300 million in revenues, effectively shuttering the county's Provident Hospital and possibly suburban Oak Forest Hospital as well as a dozen medical clinics.

He called Tuesday's action "political theater" and at one point said he had grown tired of some commissioners voting with him on budgetary matters -- and then making him a target when it suits their political purposes.

"I am very upset today and it's not just this, it's all this crap," Stroger said.

Several commissioners suggested better management -- from Stroger himself -- might keep government in the black.

While such comments might be expected from Commissioner Tony Peraica, a Republican, and even Forrest Claypool, the potential Democratic challenger to Stroger in the 2010 board president primary, it was surprising when powerful Democratic ally John Daley also seemingly rebuked Stroger.

"You might want to listen for a change," Daley, chair of the county Finance Committee, told Stroger.

Daley later explained that he was simply trying to get Stroger's attention during the debate. But there was speculation Tuesday that this might be a break between Stroger and Daley, who declined to say who he might support in next year's board president race.

Pressed about his initial support of the tax increase and his later move to repeal it, Daley started talking about budget cuts and living within our means.

"Any time we've said, 'You're going to cut,' [and] people said, 'We can't live with it,' once the budget was passed, they live with it."

Democratic Commissioners William Beavers, Robert Steele and Jerry Butler voted against the repeal. Beavers said it would hurt his poorest constituents.

But Peraica, in voting for the rollback, said it would benefit the poor.

"How about helping the poor people by letting them keep some money in their pocket and not plucking their pocket?" He said during the meeting.

When the board raised the county's share of the sales tax an additional penny on the dollar -- from .75 percent to 1.75 percent -- last year, Chicago's overall sales tax increased to 10.25 percent, the highest of any big city. The tax applies to clothes, furniture, alcohol and restaurant food. If it's rolled back, the sales tax would return to .75 percent. In Chicago that adds up to 9.25 percent.