2/25/2008

No deals, no tax hikes during today's Cook County Board Meeting

From the Daily Herald:

Cook County board members adjourned temporarily Monday with no votes on taxes and no budget compromise in sight.

The 17 members will reconvene Wednesday.

In the meantime, President Todd Stroger's office will try to reach some consensus with Commissioner Roberto Maldonado, a Chicago Democrat.

Maldonado is the ninth vote Stroger needs to pass a sales tax.

Maldonado refused to vote for Stroger's 2-point increase in the sales tax because he said it was too regressive and would negatively affect senior citizens in his district. Instead, he put together an alternative package of five taxes, including a tax on jet fuel, heavy SUVs and alcohol served in bars.

But Monday afternoon, shortly before the board met, Maldonado told the Daily Herald he could support a quarter-point increase in the sales tax if Stroger would gather the votes to pass his five taxes.

Apparently, however, the two sides could not reach a deal Monday and the board recessed until Wednesday to try to work one out.

The administration says the budget deficit is $280 million and Maldonado's tax increases would raise $142 million in new revenues. It's not clear how much a quarter-point increase would raise.

Looks like your pocket book is safe for another day.

Considering the difficulty that Stroger is having packaging votes for this tax hike, one would think the task would be no easier to try to put the votes together for Maldonado's 5 tax hikes. All signs seem to point to more gridlock on the County Board.

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Filed Under: Cook County Politics

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