Cook officials vote down tax hikes

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger sent a message Wednesday: It's his way of raising taxes or no way.

OK, responded commissioners, no way it is.

The majority of the board voted to investigate massive cuts in order to close the $237.5 million budget deficit in next year's budget.

The move toward cuts Wednesday came after Stroger failed earlier this year to raise nine votes for his preferred budget that included $750 million annually in new sales taxes. Although the tax proposal was never formally voted on, Stroger had managed to corral eight votes, but could not convince Commissioner Roberto Maldonado to come on board and thus give him a majority to enact the tax increase.

Instead, Maldonado proposed his own mix of taxes Wednesday, including a tax on heavy SUVs, alcohol, jet fuel and other items that would have raised $94 million in 2008.

Had Stroger supported those taxes and mustered the eight commissioners who supported his sales tax proposal to back Maldonado's taxes, the county would have been able to at least close a little over a third of the deficit.

Instead, none of Stroger's eight would even second Maldonado's effort, killing it without a vote.

"Sadly, this administration is saying it's a sales tax or no tax," said Maldonado afterward.

One of Stroger's eight sales tax proposal votes, Commissioner Deborah Sims, said she didn't favor Maldonado's taxes because they faced constitutional challenges, not because the administration told her what to do.

Lance Tyson, Stroger's chief of staff, denied Stroger was responsible for killing Maldonado's move.

But Commissioner Mike Quigley contended that was exactly what happened.

"They have control of a certain number of votes … they put the kibosh on it," said Quigley, a Chicago Democrat. "It weakens (the administration's) argument that they want taxes because they care about the mission of Cook County."

Also failing Wednesday were proposals by Commissioner Bill Beavers for increased taxes on natural gas and electricity.

With that, finance committee Chairman John Daley said he believes there is simply no support for new taxes and he and a majority of commissioners voted to instruct county elected officials to prepare proposals by Monday to cut 10 percent from their budgets to start the process of balancing the budget. The board will likely start reviewing those proposals Wednesday.

With the failure to pass any kind of a tax increase Wednesday, the board may have to work through the holiday season, when at least one anti-tax commissioner will be on vacation. That raised the possibility of a vote on taxes coming up with members missing and possibly enabling the tax to pass. But Daley vowed Wednesday not to do that.

"I won't call it for a vote," said Daley. "I doubt if I'd call it. I mean I doubt it. No, I wouldn't do that. No, I've never done that."