2018 Cook County Budget Passes Unanimously with 323 Layoffs

Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee Meeting and Board Meeting
November 20, 2017

Board members present:  All 17

In a break from past practice, the Board meeting was convened first in order to allow 29 public speakers to be heard.  Most of these speakers were either employees scheduled to lose their jobs or their union representatives.  Many of these employees had over 15 years with the County.  However, the repeal of the sweetened beverage tax meant a loss of $200 million in revenues for 2018, and the only way to balance the budget was with a reduction in personnel costs, the largest portion of the budget.
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After the public speakers, the Board meeting recessed so the Finance Committee could convene and consider 6 amendments to balance the budget and make necessary corrections. After passing 5 of the 6 amendments, there was a delay because they were waiting for copies  of a substitute amendment 2-S-1, which was posted on the web site shortly after 12 noon.  The Commissioners waived the rule requiring at least 24 hours prior notice in order to vote on the amendment, which contained the vast majority of the decreases in expenditures and employee positions necessary to balance the budget. This amendment eliminated

• $158 million in expenditures
• 1,017 vacant positions
• 323 currently filled positions.  Those positions came from
  • Assessor – 5
  • Board of Review – 8
  • Health & Hospitals System – 34
  • Chief Judge – 156
  • Clerk – 3
  • Office of the President – 15
  • Sheriff – 100

(This only adds up to 321 positions, but this is what this observer heard the Budget Director state.)  However, this version also saved a number of jobs that had been listed as being eliminated in the earlier versions of the amendment.

While furlough days had been suggested by the Chief Judge in lieu of layoffs, only the Clerk of the Court Dorothy Brown was able to secure the written acceptance of the affected unions, so only her area will utilize furlough days.  Besides the Clerk of the Court’s area, there were no layoffs in the offices of the Public Defender, Recorder of Deeds, State’s Attorney, or Treasurer, although they did lose currently vacant positions which all but the Treasurer would have liked to have filled.  

Sixteen out of the 17 Commissioners were sponsors of all 6 amendments.  Only Commissioner Garcia was not a sponsor, but he voted along with all the other Commissioners for all 6 amendments.  

Some of the comments by the Commissioners included:

• The Commissioners should become involved with the budget process earlier (May) and votes on revenues should be part of the process to provide room for compromise, unlike this year when the vote to rescind the sweetened beverage tax took place outside of the process.  While no cuts were made to the Commissioners’ offices, they should voluntarily spend less than allocated.  (Suffredin)
• We were able to reduce the tax burden on Cook County residents by $200 million (Morrison)
• Most of the elected County officials did not support maintaining the sweetened beverage tax, and people who were laid off should remember that during next year’s elections.  Cited that 86% of Cook County people were against the tax.  (Tobolski)
• We were able to make cuts without reducing the frontline employees, and I am pleased that there is a new position in the Inspector General’s office who will handle sexual harassment allegations. (Boykin)
• Unlike most governments, Cook County has not increased property taxes to reflect inflation.  According to the Center for Tax and Budget accountability, that means Cook County has lost out on over $400 million in property taxes.  The County needs more structural changes, including following through on consolidating the functions of procurement, technology, and human resources, which are currently in some of the elected officials’ offices.  (Garcia)
• Most citizens do not see where the revenues for County government are spent.  We need to do a better job of explaining what the County does.  (Moody)
• All the elected officials in Cook County need to take this Board seriously.  (Daley)
• This is not the budget I wanted.  (Preckwinkle)

Observer - Priscilla Mims