It's time to fix unfair override system
State Rep. Paul Froehlich said last May it will take "dynamite" to dislodge legislation on the Cook County veto process from the Illinois House committee where it was sent, apparently to die.
Could last week's pathetic display of political maneuvering in Cook County at least light the fuse?
The immediate issue was a move to cut in half a 1 percentage point sales tax increase that took effect a year ago. After months of failed efforts to remove the entire increase, county commissioners thought they'd finally cobbled together enough support to at least decrease the sales tax slightly. But, shielded by an irrationally large override requirement, County Board President Todd Stroger vetoed the measure and at the last minute, Commissioner Deborah Sims, who originally supported the reduction, swung to Stroger's side, ensuring its failure.
The county's sales tax increase is ridiculous enough in its own right, but the many iterations of this controversy have done nothing if not to emphasize the unfairness of a system that can permit only four of 17 commissioners to thwart the will of the board majority.
Granted, the system was originally put in place - more than 130 years ago - to ensure that suburban interests were protected on the county board. But that argument has not held any validity at least since the board's makeup was changed nearly four decades ago. Today, the 14-vote supermajority required to override a presidential veto is oppressive.
In May, state Sen. Dan Kotowski, a Park Ridge Democrat, sponsored legislation to change the requirement that was approved 57-0 in the Senate. Sent to the House, where Schaumburg Democrat Froehlich co-sponsored it, the bill was moved by Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan to the Rules Committee, where it is generally expected to languish indefinitely.
On Tuesday, Kotowski brought along more Democratic support in the person of Evanston state Rep. Julie Hamos to re-emphasize the need to change Cook County's override process and promise to press the issue again in October.
Realists must acknowledge, if not accept, Madigan's manipulation of the legislative system to stifle, if not kill, the override legislation in support of fellow Democrat Stroger. With a unanimous bipartisan vote in the state Senate and the knowledge that eight prominent Cook County Democrats supported the tax rollback, we encourage suburban lawmakers to keep up the pressure on the speaker to permit this new effort to reach the floor for a vote.
It's a lot to hope for in Illinois' poisonous political climate, we know. But Cook County voters - and, more specifically, Cook County taxpayers, in this case - deserve better than a system that protects an autocrat against even a bipartisan coalition of commissioners attempting to act in the interest of their constituents.
Come October, we hope to hear a little explosion that gives it to them.