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After modest spending cuts and a large infusion of one-time revenue, the Cook County Board early Tuesday passed a balanced 2004 budget of nearly $3 billion that includes an 82-cent increase in the cigarette tax. After approving an amendment forwarded by Board President John Stroger that would trim $5.49 million in spending, with nearly $3 million coming from the sheriff's department, county commissioners worked late into the night Monday considering more than 100 other amendments. Commissioners had approved the cigarette tax hike earlier this month--raising the county levy to $1-a-pack--in lieu of a new county lease tax and a hike in the county share of the sales tax that Stroger hadsought earlier. In the city, the combination of county, city and federal cigarette taxes will add $2.53 to the price of a pack. Thebudget totaled $2.99 billion, but did not seek an increase in the county's property tax levy--the fifth year in a row Stroger said he had held the line on the county government portion of the property tax bill. Still, the budget accord was nailed down only after Stroger said his finance team found more than $20 million in extra revenue from a legal settlement and the tapping of an indemnity fund. That, combined with the last minute budget cuts, closed a $26 million budget gap that had remained despite passage of the cigarette tax hike. Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-Evanston) introduced but later withdrew an amendment that would have added 100 new correctional officers at the Cook County Jail. Suffredin has been one of the nine commissioners--five Republicans and four Democrats--who successfully blocked Stroger's earlier attempts to increase the sales tax and to implement a new tax on leased items. The county's fiscal year began Dec. 1, but commissioners previously passed a resolution to pay the day-to-day bills while the budget was sorted out. The swing vote on the 17-member body has been Democrat Earlean Collins, who joined the opposition bloc to stop the sales and lease taxes but joined Stroger earlier this month in voting for the cigarette tax increase. At the time, Collins said she would continue to support the tax increase when it came back for a final vote as long as the board supported some of her budget amendments aimed at eliminating wasteful spending and strengthening the board's role. Collins proposed 18 amendments but later withdrew 15 of them, saying she would bring some of them up later outside of the budget process. Stroger said he worked withother elected officials to achieve the $5.49 million in cuts in his budget amendment. No layoffs were necessary to achieve the reductions, officials said. Rather, the spending cuts largely come from salary reductions in vacant positions and ratcheting down various line items, such as for training, office supplies and outside services Collins applauded Stroger on the budget, adding that the budget process has been challenging "both physically and mentally." Some of Stroger's more strident opponents in the budget battle said the cuts did not go far enough. Democrat Forrest Claypool, who was elected in 2002 on an anti-tax platform, said the cuts came from "funny money accounts" and were "just the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg." "These cuts are not enough," Claypool said. "Most of our families are struggling. They are living from paycheck to paycheck, if they are fortunate enough to have a paycheck. ... No one believes that this is an efficient government." Suffredin said Stroger's amendment was a "good first step." "The amazing thing about this amendment is when you push hard enough you can find places to cut," Suffredin said. Suffredin said the $20 million in additional revenue seemed to come out of "thin air." Stroger's amendment trimming $5.49 million passed 16-1 with Republican Tony Peraica of the western suburbs the lone dissenter. "I'm voting no because these cuts are simply not enough," Peraica said. "They are not sufficient for us to deal with the kind of problems we're going to have to deal with by the end of this year."