Your move, commissioners.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger today vetoed the half-percent sales tax rollback approved by county commissioners last week. The issue will be debated next Tuesday, and commissioners will try to use a new state law making it easier to override the president's veto to sustain the rollback. It would go into effect July 1, 2010.
In a letter submitted to County Clerk David Orr, Stroger says he moved to raise the sales tax to increase revenue for the county, which hadn't raised property taxes in about 10 years.
"There is not a household in Cook County that could pay 2008 bills with 1996 dollars, and neither could Cook County. That is why my Administration went to the Cook County Commissioners to ask for one penny more in sales tax revenue to fund essential services," the letter states.
"Now, some members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners seem determined to throw Cook County in the red by rolling back a portion of the sales tax – a nearsighted action that will force significant cuts to the County’s health care and public safety systems and negatively affect the people who need these services the most," Stroger writes.
He says the sales tax is essential to keeping the county fiscally afloat, while providing vital services, like health care, to residents.
"I cannot and will not support an action by the board that will place the county’s finances and service operations at grave risk, nor will I support a decision that is made without public input or due diligence as to how such a reduction will effect the county in the future," he writes.
Windy Citizen 