The Toddler: Cribbing off Daley's Playbook
By Kevin Robinson in News on Oct 23, 2009 2:00PM
Cook County Board President and local punchline Todd "The Toddler" Stroger is taking a page out of Mayor Daley's political playbook: holding the line on taxes. In a speech to county commissioners this week, Stroger touted his proposed $3 billion budget as maintaining the same level of service without raising taxes. "The executive budget I place before you is balanced, no delays of payment cycles, no long term borrowing to fund operations, no use of reserve funds to pay our bills. Likewise my budget plan for 2010 includes no new taxes, none," Stroger said. "Today, as our national and state governments face terrible deficits, and as many local governments in Illinois find themselves in dire financial shape, Cook County is relatively strong," he said. The proposed budget will actually increase spending by about $80 million, nearly four percent. Those costs include covering previously unmet obligations to employee pension funds, an increase of $35 million to the county sheriff's office, and $22 million in employ pay increases.
But not all county services are immune to cuts, at least in employment. The Cook County Health and Hospitals System plans to eliminate 700 hundred vacant positions in the system, and another 335 staff positions. The bulk of those cuts will come from support staff, such as building services and food services, although the county health system will reduce direct patient care in areas where need doesn't align with supply. These cuts are expected to save about $60 million annually in the county budget. Stroger, who agreed to set up an independent board of directors in exchange for the controversial sales tax increase last year, was critical of the move, saying that the cuts "threatened core services for the uninsured, under-insured and unemployed workers and their families across Cook County." But health system chief executive officer William Foley told the Sun-Times that “when the Cook County Board of Commissioners established the independent health system, they required us to undergo a performance improvement assessment study,” and that areas in need of staffing adjustments had been identified.
Stroger says that he hopes his budget will be passed by Thanksgiving.