Cook County budget passes with no operational borrowing

Cook County reformers claimed victory Friday, passing the county budget with no borrowing for operational expenses.

But one surefire loser in the deal was the county employee pension fund, which got stiffed for $105 million it is due by law. The pension fund was due the money in November, and would have grounds to sue, county administrators have said in the past.

Representatives of the fund couldn't be reached for comment Friday afternoon after the budget passed, but Cook County Board President Todd Stroger said the county would likely be paying none of that tab in 2009. He hopes to broker a deal with the fund whereby the county can pay off the bill over time.

The normal county pension payment, made annually, will be paid Stroger said. The $105 million lump-sum payment is left over from a 2007 special buyout package.

Stroger had initially proposed paying off the bill by borrowing through bond issues, but a block of commissioners led by Chicago Democrats Forrest Claypool and Mike Quigley refused to go along, arguing that taking out a loan for the pension payment and the county's legal fees and awards fund was like a household taking out a bank loan to pay for weekly groceries.

In the end, Stroger allies couldn't come up with nine votes to pass the bonds out of committee, and had to make cuts in the budget elsewhere to pay for the county's legal fund, known as the "self-insurance" fund.

Board members did authorize some borrowing for capital projects like new buildings and equipment, which is a widely accepted practice for governments and business.

Stroger said he had no estimate on how many employees might need to be laid off as a result of the cuts, but Evanston Democrat Larry Suffredin said up to 30 assistant public defenders might face the ax. Others doubted the number.

Suffredin and two other Chicago Democrats Michael Quigley and Jerry Butler voted against the budget, but for different reasons. Butler said the hospital system was getting "raped" by the cuts, while Quigley said cuts alone weren't enough; that the entire county government needed to be overhauled for efficiencies.