Stroger backs away from pledge to veto repeal of tax hike

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger on Wednesday abruptly backed off threats to veto a repeal of the year-old 1 percent sales-tax increase.

After beginning the day telling WLS 890-AM morning hosts Don Wade & Roma that a veto would be "an exercise in futility," he followed Wednesday's Forest Preserve Board meeting by saying he would consult other county officials "and see what they want to do."

After the Cook County Board passed the repeal by a 12-3 vote Tuesday, Stroger threatened the cuts would force closure of county hospitals and clinics, and his spokesmen insisted he would waste no time vetoing it. On Wednesday, however, the county board president explained only that "I was madder yesterday."

He had also awakened to political reality. When Finance Committee Chairman John Daley, brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, joined the repeal faction, and Mayor Daley likewise came out in favor of a repeal, it was widely perceived as a threat by the Democratic machine to throw Stroger to the wolves when he runs for re-election next year, especially with Mayor Daley facing his own tax revolt over parking meters and the like.

"The mayor passed nine taxes in two years," Stroger countered before reporters Wednesday. "Let's see you write about that, and then I'll talk about anything else."

Commissioner Elizabeth Gorman, an Orland Park Republican who was one of the leaders of the repeal movement, said she wasn't surprised by Stroger's change in attitude.

"I'm glad that President Stroger slept on it and didn't have the knee-jerk reaction he had yesterday," Gorman said.

She also went into some of the maneuvering that led to the 12-3 vote.

"It was really a tactical move," she said.

She had been proposing a two-part rollback of this year's 1 percent tax increase, a half percent in 2010 and the other half in 2011.

"When we saw that there were a couple of commissioners who weren't available to vote and were out of the room, we pulled one out of the playbook and actually went forward to try to make this happen," she said.

She had expected a 7-7 vote and a moral victory on the sudden surprise bid to roll back the 1 percent increase entirely in 2010, but when Daley came across, "then the floodgates came open with the votes, and we got a strong vote to repeal this tax. And a strong message has been sent."

Commissioner Earleen Collins was in Washington, D.C., at a conference trying to secure federal stimulus-plan money for the county and was one of two commissioners absent from Tuesday's meeting. On Wednesday, she decried the political grandstanding, but did not say she would reject an attempt to override a veto. The repeal forces would need both Collins' vote and that of Commissioner Deborah Sims, who was the only commissioner absent both Tuesday and Wednesday, in order to override a veto.

"Most of what's going on here is being driven by individuals' political ambitions," Collins said, "and not what is really in the best interests of Cook County."

Yet she was open to the idea that the sales-tax increase, which raised the county's stake from .75 percent to 1.75 percent and made Chicago's overall sales tax the highest in the nation at more than 10 percent, could be abandoned.

"I have to know what's going on here," Collins said. "I'm not guided by the drama and all the stuff that's going on.

"If in fact the majority of this board feels that they don't need the sales tax, I don't think President Stroger should veto it," she added. "If we don't need it, I will vote to override the veto. I want to do what is responsible and best for the people."

She made it clear, however, she did not want to disrupt "essential services."

"People will speak when they find out services are cut to a point that it endangers those we are supposed to protect," Collins said.

Commissioner Tony Peraica insisted cuts could be made by trimming patronage jobs.

"We have too many people who are not working, who are not earning their checks, and we need to remove them," he said.

Gorman pooh-poohed threats that county hospitals would have to be closed and other services cut as "dire threats ... just basically trying to strong-arm us."

She said the need for a repeal was vital.

"We are serious," she said. "The area I represent is the western edge of Cook County, and businesses are shutting and our constituents are going over to DuPage and Lake County and flooding into their businesses, which is terrible for our municipalities and overall county."

State Rep. Sidney Mathias, a Buffalo Grove Republican, underscored that dissatisfaction with a news release praising the county board for approving the repeal and urging Stroger not to veto it.

"I hope that County Board members maintain their resolve and vote to override Stroger's expected veto at their next board meeting," Mathias said in the release.

Yet, Stroger said returning the sales tax to previous levels would mean a 22 percent cut to the county budget. He said he would talk to the county treasurer and clerk and sheriff and other elected officials to weigh the options.

"I can't do it myself," he said. "If the money's not going to be there, I have to talk to all these other groups that spend the money. What are they going to do, and what do they want me to recommend?"

He wasn't expecting any fresh ideas from the commissioners.

"That's the funny thing about the board," Stroger said. "They don't come up with too many plans. They just say they don't like yours. But not a lot of creative thinking has gone into this."

He said he had five days to make a decision on whether to veto the repeal. Peraica for one was not expecting him to follow through on his veto threats, saying, "I don't think he wants to jump off the cliff by himself."

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