The Better Government Association (BGA) reviewed the mixed results of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle's record since her election in 2010.
Preckwinkle promised to repeal an unpopular 1 percent county sales tax hike and to impose austerity programs on the county government. During her first few years in office, she fulfilled those promises. The sales tax hike that doomed her predecessor Todd Stronger's career was rolled back and she trimmed the county budget by a total of $514 million.
However, Preckwinkle has reinstated the 1 percent increase in the sales tax, added a county hotel and motel tax and imposed a penny-per-ounce tax on soft drinks.
The 2017 county budget of $4.4 billion faced a shortfall of $174.3 million. By using spending cuts, layoffs, not filling positions and the new taxes, the county budget is expected to balance.
“We’ve had to take some difficult steps to stabilize our finances, but we had no other choice," Preckwinkle told the BGA. "We’re confronting things aggressively, making tough, but necessary decisions so we don’t pass our problems on to future generations.”
Preckwinkle pointed to U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley's reform plan, crafted 14 years ago when he was a County Board commissioner, for some of her belt-tightening measures. Consolidating the county clerk and recorder of deeds office, collaborating with the city of Chicago to reduce supply and printing costs, and combining city and county workforce development are among the reforms suggested by Quigley's plan.
Preckwinkle also reduced jail costs and, with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, was able to turn the county's public health system around. CountyCare signed up more than 180,000 patients and reduced the number of emergency room visits by low-income residents, resulting in positive $14 million in revenue for 2015.
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