Preckwinkle Lays Down the Law

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 19, 2011 4:20PM

County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has so far walked the walk with regards to her insistence that the budget cuts she's insisting on for Cook County government be a shared sacrifice. County Assessor Joe Berrios, the Cook County Board of Review, health and hospitals CEO William Foley and Recorder of Deeds Eugene Moore have agreed to across the board 16 percent cuts. But Preckwinkle has found resistance from the three offices that make up a third of the county budget. Sheriff Tom Dart, State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and County Clerk Dorothy Brown have all told Preckwinkle that their departments are either running lean already or they're prevented from making cuts because of court-ordered hiring decrees.

Preckwinkle has said that, if Alvarez, Dart and Brown can't make the cuts, she will.

“We believe they can” make the cuts, Preckwinkle said. “We’ve asked for shared sacrifice. I think the words early on were that no one would be absolved and no one would be alone in making these cuts.”

Preckwinkle's office is taking the biggest hit, thanks to the "screw-it" lame duck term of her predecessor. Todd Stroger exceeded the $2.3 million to cover salaries in offices under his authority last year by $600,000, meaning that Preckwinkle is forced to cut deeper than most. Spokespeople for both Alvarez and Dart said they will continue to work with Preckwinkle to find the necessary budget cuts. But Alvarez warns that the cuts could bring to a crawl her office's ability to prosecute criminal and civil cases working through the courts.

In other county-related news, Preckwinkle announced that Tariq G. Malhance is the county's new Chief Financial Officer. Malhance was a former city comptroller.