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Assessor Berrios lays off 53 as part of county budget cuts Friday, January 28, 2011
Chicago Tribune
by Hal Dardick Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios today
began laying off 53 workers to comply with County Board President Toni
Preckwinkle’s request to slash his annual operating costs by 16 percent
this year.
Of the laid-off employees, 48 were members of unions who received
30-day notices, as required under their contract, said Kelley Quinn, a
spokeswoman for Berrios. The other five held jobs that don’t have
those protections and had to leave today, she said.
“President
Preckwinkle asked us to cut 16 percent from our budget, and that’s what
we are doing,” Quinn said. “It was very, very painful to have to do
that.”
Preckwinkle has asked all county offices to cut costs by
16 percent this year to help close a budget shortfall that her new
administration pegged at $487 million. Other steps to close that hole
will include debt refinancing, court fee increases and consolidation of
departments, she said.
Preckwinkle herself is laying off 418 employees in the offices she controls, a move she also called “painful.”
That
pain could extend into coming years, as she has promised to eliminate
within two years the remaining half of the penny-on-the-dollar
sales-tax increase enacted under her predecessor, Todd Stroger.
Berrios
also is leaving 30 jobs vacant, buying fewer office supplies and
cutting printing and postage costs through greater use of the Web,
Quinn said.
“How this is going to impact the public remains to
be seen,” she said. “Could that mean the new tax bills may be late?
Yes. Does this mean there could be longer lines at the assessor’s
office? Yes.”
Berrios himself came under fire when he took
office last month and hired his sister, son and a close political
operative. Those three remain on the payroll.
Meanwhile, Sally
Daly, spokeswoman for State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, said her boss is
not thrilled about the 10 percent cut in spending that will occur in
her office.
Alvarez negotiated the cuts down from 16 percent to
make them less painful before “the president’s office imposed the 10
percent reduction,” Daly said.
“There’s no way for us to avoid
significant layoffs of personnel, and that will include prosecutors,”
Daly said. “It’s going to have an impact on our services.”
Preckwinkle
on Tuesday will introduce her $3.1 billion budget proposal, the start
of what could be a month-long debate on the final budget to be approved
by the 17-member board.
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