Unjustified increase in county sales tax could be devastating to Palatine

By Rita L. Mullins, Mayor; Michael Jezierski, Scott Lamerand, Dan Varroney, Greg Solberg, Jack Wagner, Brad Helms; councilmen, village of Palatine

The Cook County Board struggled to prepare a balanced budget this past year. A $230 million shortfall was created through Board President Todd Stroger's addition of 1,200 positions and top-grading pay scales. To rectify this gap it was decided that a 1 percentage-point sales tax increase along with assorted fees would be implemented in 2008.

While on the surface 1 percent may seem like a small amount, it is further exacerbating the sales tax discrepancy that all "border" communities face. As an illustration, Palatine will be strapped with a 10 percent sales tax while our neighbors directly north of our borders enjoy a 7 percent sales tax rate. While the historical situation has never favored the Cook County side of the equation, the most recent move could inflict long term devastation to our community. Along with the impact of sales tax increases on our businesses, the residents within Cook County will be paying these tax increases and assorted fees. This will reduce our consumers' buying power and make the process of paying the monthly bills increasingly more difficult.

The simple theory behind running a successful and sustainable government entails the formation of a diverse set of revenue streams to help offset costs of delivering a wide range of services. In Palatine we have worked diligently to develop diverse commercial corridors to produce robust revenue streams. While economic development is always difficult we feel confident we have started down a path to reach this goal. The successes from our efforts have resulted in growing sales tax revenues, an increasing commercial property tax base, increasing employment opportunities, growing and expanding businesses, among other things. These benefits have allowed Palatine to offer more to residents without skyrocketing our property taxes.

The increased Cook County sales tax not only threatens these results but also threatens the future of our community. With a likely flight of consumers to Lake County, our Cook County revenue generators are faced with a challenge to create 1 percent more value from product offerings. Businesses will do what is necessary to find this 1 percent. They will likely look to reduce costs by lowering head count, reducing benefit packages and canceling expansion plans. The ones who can afford to relocate to the other side of Lake Cook Road will do so. And behind, Palatine is left with increased commercial vacancies, lower sales tax revenues, less services for residents and a newly created deficit.

This is the future the Cook County Board has created. We have a different vision for our future. We envision a community that continues to grow economically and continues to provide additional revenues to our county. A community with partners dedicated to high levels of services, excellent schools, parks, etc. while remaining an affordable place to raise a family. Our vision can only be achieved if we are allowed to compete with other communities on a level playing field and our residents have the funds to purchase goods and not simply pay excessive taxes and fees to support the growth of government.

Over the next weeks and months we will be working with state, county and local officials along with residents and businesses to determine how Palatine and other border communities can provide safeguards from irresponsible taxing authorities. Whether a disconnection from Cook County or the formation of a new county is appropriate will be explored while we await an explanation for the 1,200 added Cook County positions that were promoted by President Stroger. It's this growth within the public sector that threatens our communities and it is this growth that needs to be safeguarded against.

We would like to understand and communicate to our shareholders exactly what added benefits will result from the extra $4.5 million in county sales taxes being invested by the village of Palatine.