Raise level of leadership, not taxes

The Cook County Board had some options to consider last week as alternatives to a 2 percentage point increase in the countywide sales tax. By and large, board members wouldn't even talk about them.

That leaves on the table only two potential means of closing a $237.5 million spending gap in next year's budget: the new 2.75 percent sales tax and other hikes that Cook County Board President Todd Stroger proposes, or significant cuts in programs.

It is probably too much to ask for a compromise between those options from this dysfunctional group, but one can always hope. In that vein, there are certain premises on which any budget resolution must be based.

First, a 2.75 percent Cook County sales tax is utterly unacceptable. Stroger himself acknowledges that the county doesn't need as much money as his proposals would produce, promising -- to those who can resist laughing in his face at the offer -- that he will scale back the tax once the county pays its bills and gets back on its feet. That very logic -- the practice of inundating county-run agencies with money until the crying for more stops -- represents the kind of unbridled mismanagement that is at the heart of the county's financial mess.

But even more important, a nearly 3 percent county sales tax would cripple businesses throughout Cook County, creating a total sales tax burden over 10 percent in many suburbs and sending Cook County shoppers in swarms to neighboring counties.

Stroger's other proposed tax increases -- doubling the county's share of the gas tax to 12 cents a gallon and the county portion of the parking tax to $2 -- are no less ridiculous.

The issues here are not insufficient revenues, but insufficient leadership. Ultimately, some deep program cuts are necessary. Cook County taxpayers are providing the county more than $3 billion for health care, police protection, jail management, record keeping and other services. Many, of course, are critical services, but $3 billion -- someone must eventually acknowledge -- is a lot of money. At some point, supervisors at every level of county government need to accept that government exists not as a job bank for friends and relatives but to provide protection and services for citizens.

Making the cuts will not be easy. The county provides scores of services that meet critical human needs. Indiscriminate slashing has the potential to do great harm. But if county board members could roll up their sleeves and spend as much time studying programs as they spend devising new names to call each other and finding creative job titles for family members and political supporters, they could go a long way toward reaching the goal.

And, not that many of them are really interested beyond giving the notion campaign lip service, it could also go a long way in restoring the kind of confidence that would make voters more inclined to believe their county leaders can be trusted with more money.