Tuesday, November 17, 2009

FINALLY: Cook County commissioners vote to cut in half Stroger sales tax increase

Clout St:
Today's vote is the latest development in a political struggle between commissioners and Board President Todd Stroger, who pushed through a penny-on-the-dollar sales tax increase last year. The unpopular tax hike pushed the sales tax rate to 10.25 percent in Chicago.

Stroger has vetoed past attempts this year by commissioners to cut or repeal the sales tax increase and was able to preserve the tax hike because the board could not muster the 14 votes required to overturn his veto.
But state law recently changed, allowing commissioners to override a Stroger veto with 11 votes. So if Stroger tries to block today's attempt to cut the sales tax, only 11 of 17 commissioners would have to band together to cut taxes.

Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston, cobbled together today's bloc of 12 commissioners that backed the half-cent rollback by a margin that would withstand a veto effort. Suffredin voted for the tax increase last year. To see how they voted please click here.

Stroger has long maintained that rolling back the tax would decimate the county's public health care system, a claim his critics say does not square with reality.
Click here to see how county commissioners voted!

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