Don't believe Peraica's claim

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica once again is attempting to mislead the voters of Cook County.

The budget recently approved by the Finance Committee of the Cook County Board does not include a tax increase, and no tax increase was ever proposed for 2009. It does include a 4 percent spending cut (Amendment 75) that Peraica did not support.

After all his bluster about cutting the budget, he voted "present" when he had the chance to make a difference. Next up was an amendment to cut the health budget by 2 percent, and Peraica didn't even vote at all.

He voted "yes" on July 31, 2007, to pass a major cost-of-living salary increase for employees, when he was told specifically that approving the plan would require new revenue in 2008. Then, when 2008 arrived, he forgot his previous "yes" vote and acted as if he bore no responsibility for the resulting tax increase. Then, at an important meeting of the Finance Committee on Jan. 13, 2009, to discuss the multimillion dollar capital budget, Peraica was nowhere to be found.

The budget we recently sent to the board is a fair compromise resulting from many hours of work by the Finance Committee. As chairman, it was an honor for me to work with both Democrats and Republicans in order to present this budget to the Board of Commissioners for final passage.

John P. Daley

Cook County Commissioner

Chicago