After 4th try, Cook Co. sales tax rollback will stick

The Cook County Board of Commissioners finally succeeded in overriding President Todd Stroger's veto and rolling back the sales tax by half a percentage point today.

Armed with a new, lowered three-fifths requirement to override passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Pat Quinn, the board voted 12-5 to cut in half the penny-on-the-dollar increase in the sales tax imposed last year, making it with a vote to spare. The vote went the same as last month's original tally, with only Democrats William Beavers, Jerry Butler, Joseph Mario Moreno and Deborah Sims of Chicago and Joan Patricia Murphy of Crestwood opposed.

The reduction takes effect July 1, and although a Stroger spokesman said it was "highly unlikely" he'd contest it in court on constitutional grounds, Stroger himself later said he'd consider that, saying, "I have to talk to experts first."

Stroger threatened the tax reduction would cripple the county's Health & Hospitals System, but commissioners proved more concerned about reduced tax revenue and business lost to collar counties that have lower sales taxes - as well as their re-election prospects starting with the February primary. They cut the county's share of the sales tax from 1.75 to 1.25 percent and dropped the overall sales tax below 10 percent in the city of Chicago and other municipalities - the highest in the nation for major metropolitan areas - thus removing what Evanston Democratic Commissioner Larry Suffredin, the prime sponsor, labeled a "psychological barrier" for local consumers.

Suffredin predicted the lowered sales tax - even at just a halfpenny on the dollar - would have a "boomerang effect ... by bringing jobs and shoppers back into the retail sector in Cook County."

For suburban Republican commissioners, it was all about appealing to businesses and consumers in a tough economy. For Bartlett's Timothy Schneider, Glenview's Gregg Goslin and Orland Park's Liz Gorman, it was about halting sales flight to collar counties and giving consumers a break.

For Democratic Chicago progressives, it was about reining in government by the purse strings. Commissioner Forrest Claypool said it was "a step toward more efficient government" to halt a "jobs machine for the politically connected."

"You only make cuts when you absolutely have to," echoed Commissioner Bridget Gainer, and even John Daley, chairman of the Finance Committee, insisted, "We must reboot county government, and I believe this is a beginning."

Stroger, however, said that with more than half of the county budget devoted to criminal justice and law enforcement and "untouchable," cuts would fall unfairly on more discretionary spending at hospitals and clinics. "This is about people," he said, "how we help them, and what government's role is." He expected the county to have to close Provident and Oak Forest Hospitals, as well as neighborhood clinics.

Although estimates of how much the half-percent cut would actually cost annually ranged from Daley's $118 million to Stroger's figure closer to $200 million, HHS Chief Executive Officer William Foley said it would mean about $75 million in cuts to the health-care system in 2011. "Will we close hospitals and clinics?" he asked. "We're looking at everything."

Yet, for the commissioners Stroger targeted as being on the fence - Chicago Democrats Earlean Collins, Robert Steele and Edwin Reyes - it came down to plain representative politics.

"We are supposed to vote the way the majority of people want us to vote in our districts," Collins said, adding that her constituents were 5-to-1 in favor of the rollback.

"I am an advocate of health care," Steele maintained, but added that he supported the tax cut as a compromise. "By rolling it back just a little, we hope it can encourage more spending in our county," he added. "Efficiency is what we're driving right now."

Those three and a majority of nine others stood firm in overriding Stroger's veto. Steele admitted he had faced tough lobbying. "They were sending people at us all weekend," he said, but insisted, "I wear my pants strong. My pants stay on."

By contrast, Moreno and Butler both argued that their districts were dependent on health care and voters supported the sales tax.

The fourth attempt to roll back the sales tax turned out to be the one that stuck. Three previous attempts ended when commissioners failed to overturn Stroger's veto, thwarted by the four-fifths majority then required to override.

There was some bitterness. After Butler said the override was politically motivated against Stroger "to help them bring you down," Stroger repeated that charge against the media, saying, "This was the culmination of the press dragging me through the mud for three years," insisting, "We have done a great job, but the only thing you've seen is, 'Let's get Stroger.'"

He said it was all about political expediency with the upcoming election, insisting voters would support his defense of the health-care system.

His Democratic presidential opponents, however, Chicago Hyde Park Alderman Toni Preckwinkle and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O'Brien, both issued statements applauding the override.

Riverside Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica, who said he thought is was the first successful override in more than 100 years on the County Board, went on to insist, "I will fight like a tiger to make sure none of the three hospitals close, to make sure none of the 16 clinics close," and other commissioners on both sides of the issue echoed that they would work to make tough spending choices and maintain HHS as best as possible.

Suffredin sounded the keynote to that early on when the board approved a resolution celebrating the life of his late father, who died last week. Suffredin quoted his father as saying, "None of this is nuclear war. Today's opponents are tomorrow's allies."