Sales tax power play fails

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger was forced to retreat Monday from a proposed sales tax hike after his chief of staff alienated the key swing voter on the matter.

But the issue of tax hikes is far from over this year, as Stroger and his allies promised to keep negotiating with commissioners to see if they could agree on some form of new revenue.

Monday's activities started with a fiery news conference by Democratic Commissioner Roberto Maldonado, who said Stroger's staffer Lance Tyson had threatened to have allies revoke the immigration sanctuary ordinance that Maldonado was able to pass earlier this summer. The measure assures health care and other county services for county residents regardless of their immigration status and is a key credential for Maldonado in his largely Latino district.

"I guess this administration wants to play with the immigrant community," said a livid Maldonado. "(Their threat) would not persuade me; that would infuriate me."

Maldonado had previously said he favored some tax increase but not a sales tax increase. Now, however, he promised to vote against any tax increase until the administration guaranteed him it would not play politics with the immigration issue.

Tyson refused to comment on the matter, and Stroger said he hadn't heard of anyone threatening Maldonado.

But the alienation of Maldonado left Stroger without the ninth vote he needed to pass the sales tax measure out of a 17-member committee, so its sponsor, Joan Murphy, withdrew the measure before a vote.

Another key commissioner, Earlean Collins, said she is opposed to the full, 2-percentage-point tax hike, but will "work with" Stroger to pass something, possibly a smaller version of the tax.

Commissioners who represent the Northwest suburbs -- Gregg Goslin of Glenview, Tim Schneider of Bartlett and Liz Gorman of Orland Park -- all are prepared to vote "no." So are the rest of the Republican commissioners on the board, as well as Democrats Mike Quigley and Forrest Claypool of Chicago. An eighth commissioner, Larry Suffredin, said he opposes the 2-point tax hike but is voting "present" because of a conflict of interest. He is a lawyer for a restaurant association, which would be heavily hurt by the tax.

Some commissioners privately grumble that Suffredin, who is running for Cook County state's attorney, is not so concerned about the conflict-of-interest matter as he is in staying on the fence so as not to hurt his electoral chances with a tax vote one way or another.

"That's absolutely bunk," said Suffredin, who said he received an opinion from the state's attorney's office Friday that recommended he not vote on the matter because of the conflict. "If I'm going to be the state's attorney, I've got to follow the law."

Suffredin has asked the office to look at the matter again to make sure the office was not viewing it as a restaurant sales tax -- which it is not -- but as the general sales tax it is.

Suffredin's vote may become crucial because if the vote on the tax becomes eight for, eight against and one present, Todd Stroger said Monday he would cast a tie-breaking vote -- "if I can."

There has been some legal debate about whether Stroger, who is not a commissioner, has that power.

According to a state's attorney's opinion, he does have that power on the full board, but the tax increase measure is currently in the finance committee, where Stroger does not have a seat or chair the meetings.