Stroger opens fire, fires department head
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger vehemently defended his 1 percent sales-tax increase and ripped into the commissioners who are fighting it, during a contentious radio appearance Friday.
Stroger, who faces three opponents in Tuesday's primary - all of whom oppose the tax hike, criticized "the northern commissioners" who have fought his tax hike and have so far successfully led an effort to roll back half of it.
"It depends on how much you care about health care," Stroger said during an interview on WGN 720-AM, adding that 50 percent of the people who come to county hospitals don't have health insurance and therefore have no choice where to go.
He said that's unlike the situation of many of those who oppose it, suggesting they have adequate health insurance and don't understand the plight of those who don't.
"The northern commissioners ... they don't care about the system. They will always vote against the system," Stroger said. "The black people who live on the South and West have a different view."
He said the entire hike is "absolutely necessary" and repeated his warning that, if the entire 1 percent hike is rolled back, it would mean closing major facilities including two hospitals: Provident and Oak Forest. He claimed that while those hospitals may be under capacity, Stroger Hospital is overcrowded and it's a matter of letting people know they can go to the other two, rather than closing them.
The tax increase was imposed midway through 2008, but commissioners voted late last year to cut it in half, effective July 1. That will trim the county's share of the sales tax to 1.25 percent; it was 0.75 percent before the increase.
Later Friday, with just days before the primary, Stroger announced the firing of Chief Information Officer Antonio Hytton. Hytton had been assigned to oversee the completion of Project Shield, a program to unite and improve technological communication between the county's various police departments in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Yet, fueled by millions in federal Homeland Security funding, it has been beset by charges of cost overruns and waste under Hytton.
Stroger spokeswoman Chris Geovanis said the move was not unusual. "City and state elected officials make these same types of changes routinely," she said. "Senior management individuals serve at will, and President Stroger reserves the capacity to make staffing changes as is appropriate and as is within the scope of his legal authority and his governance responsibilities."
On the radio interview, Stroger also claimed he's being wrongly blamed for other taxes imposed by other governments that are having major budget problems, such as the state and Chicago, while the county budget is balanced.
"We're solid because of that tax," he said. "This tax is not the one that has made the county fall into the lake."
Stroger faces three challengers in Tuesday's Democratic primary: Chicago Hyde Park Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O'Brien.
O'Brien has said he would roll back the other half of the increase immediately if elected. Preckwinkle and Brown both said they intend to roll it back while replacing it with other nontax revenue. All three insist that the county government spends too much and that its budget can be trimmed.