Cook County budget shutdown looming

A day of heated rhetoric and back-door negotiations left Cook County leaders no closer to passing a budget and hours from a potential government shutdown.

Commissioners Thursday night voted down a proposal to cut spending by 15 percent that would have saved $246 million and eliminated an estimated $226 million shortfall.

"The reality is if we don't have a budget to present, everything will shut down," said finance committee Chairman John Daley, who joined four other board members supporting the plan.

"There is no glee in offering this amendment," said Commissioner Gregg Goslin of Glenview, who also endorsed the reductions. "But we either have to cut costs or raise revenues."

But a majority of officials called the 15 percent reduction too draconian, saying it would hurt vital services.

"What will happen to public safety and health if you cut thousands of jobs?" asked Commissioner Joan Murphy.

Board members will continue talks this morning since the county has only until midnight to pass a budget. If that deadline passes, leaders may be forced to go to court for permission to seek emergency appropriations to operate essential services.

The day included myriad closed-door sessions as well as public confrontations.

At one point, Commissioner Larry Suffredin, who has opposed county board Chairman Todd Stroger in the past, said he'd offered a compromise to raise the sales tax by three-quarters of a percentage point and garner about $300 million.

"He rejected the offer of help," Suffredin said. "It tells me they want a shutdown." In exchange for giving Stroger the necessary ninth vote on the 17-member board, Suffredin had asked for support for reforms to the leadership of the county's hospital system.

Stroger, who favors a 1.25 percentage point sales tax increase, shot back that "three-quarters is not going to get us where we need to go. We need people to work together, not to throw stones at administrators."

Stroger warned that if commissioners fail to pass a budget, Cook County government would stop operating. "It will be a travesty," he said.

The original shortfall was $283 million, but that number has drawn skepticism by some because Stroger's budget proposal includes 1,124 new jobs.

Between Wednesday and Thursday, commissioners chipped away at the gap, finding small-scale savings and revenue. But as of noon, that still left red ink.

An impasse also could hurt the county's ability to collect about $700 million in property taxes, which will muddy the financial waters even further, legal advisers said.

Strained relations between different factions on the board kept surfacing throughout the day.

Stroger and Commissioner Mike Quigley, a frequent critic, tried to outshout each other over spending money on visits to a national coalition of counties.

"In my opinion, it's more than useless," Quigley said.

Stroger shot back, "Undermining the government is what you do."

Another battle surfaced over whether to halt new staff hires with exceptions for certain employees in health services and court-ordered jobs. The budget amendment would have saved $8.5 million but failed with disagreements surfacing over what jobs are essential.

"If we can't cut phantom jobs, we're not going to be able to close this gap," Suffredin said.

"If it's this difficult to eliminate $8.5 million, how are we going to eliminate $283 million?" asked Commissioner Timothy Schneider of Bartlett.

It's been speculated that Stroger is holding out for the higher tax increase so he won't have to bring up the subject again in 2009 or 2010, which is an election year.