2021 Cook County Budget - Departmental Budget Hearings

Cook County Board Finance Committee Budget Meeting
Monday, Oct. 26, Morning Session

Overview of Proposed Budget:    
    $6.9 B (2021) - $6.2 B (2020) = increase of $0.7 B
     21,820 FTEs (2021) – 22,074 FTEs (2020) = decrease of 254 FTEs
Offices under the President:  
    $1,222.5 M (2021) - $1,041.4 M (2020) = increase of $181.1 M
    1,798 FTEs (2021) – 1,812 FTEs (2020) = decrease of 14 FTEs
(FTE = full time equivalent; 1 FTE is equal to 1 employee working a fulltime job)
Offices under the President include 6 Bureaus and 34 Departments (most of which are under the Bureaus) which encompass the following:  the President’s office and the Justice Advisory Council; the Bureaus of Administration, Asset Management, Economic Development, Finance, Human Resources, and Technology; the County Auditor; the Department of Administrative Hearings; and the Department of Human Rights & Ethics

Assessor:
    $31.12 M (2021) - $29.94 M (2020) = increase of $1.81 M
    276 FTEs (2021) – 277 FTEs (2020) = decrease of 1 FTE

​Highlights from the Overview of the Proposed Budget:

• There are NO TAX INCREASES.
• Most of the $700 million increase from 2020 is due to increased County Care membership (that brings both revenues and expenses) and some increases in new revenues, helping to offset the budgeted reduction in other revenues.  CFO Ammar Rizki stressed that core County services have grown over the last 11 years at an annualized rate of just 1.5%, equal to the inflation rate.  County Care, in contrast, has grown from $96.2 M in 2013 to $2.2 B in 2021.
• FTEs have decreased 9% since 2011
• New sources of revenue are:  online sales tax (budgeted at $80.3 M), cannabis tax ($13.9 M), and sport wagering tax ($3.6 M)
• The gap identified this summer between projected revenues and expenses in the General Fund was eliminated through reduction of some expenditures, additional revenues identified, $50 M to cover allowable expenses in December from the Federal CARES Act, and $76.8 M drawn from the County’s reserves.  CFO Rizki stressed the importance of both the CARES Act money and having a healthy reserve ($400 M as of the end of 2019, the last audited year) that allowed the budget to be balanced.
• Cook County Health (composed of County Care, the managed care program for those on Medicare and Medicaid, and the “service providers,” which are the 2 hospitals and clinics, plus the Public Health Department) makes up $3.3 B of the County’s budget.   This year, the County’s allocation is $122.7 M (an increase of $40 M from 2020) to cover the costs of Public Health and health services for those in the County Jail.  The County also provides $162.6 M in pension support and $136.4 M to cover debt, for a total of $421.7 M.
• The 2021 budget supports close to $100 M in Equity Funding to be invested over the next 2 years in restorative justice, violence prevention, digital equity, public health, workforce training, affordable transportation, and housing assistance.
• The budget includes a supplemental pension amount (drawn from sales tax revenues) of $342 M, so the County is still on track to achieve 100% pension funding by 2047.  Without the extra funding from the sales tax, the projection is that the pension fund would have been insolvent by 2038.

Highlights from the Meeting with the Offices under the President:

• Chief of Staff Lanetta Haynes Turner provide the overview, which was at a very high level, in contrast to prior years where there were presentations by each of the Bureaus and remaining departments.  
• Instead, the presentation focused on how the President’s portion of the budget is being used to carry out her “Policy Roadmap” of Healthy Communities (health and wellness), Vital Communities (economic development), Safe and Thriving Communities (criminal justice), Sustainable Communities (environment and sustainability), Smart Communities (public infrastructure), and Open Communities (good government)
• Commissioner Miller asked about where the money for the Equity Funding came from.  $40 M is from drawing from reserves, but it was stressed that the need to find sustainable funding is now part of the County’s long-term financial planning.  There were few other questions from the Commissioners, and none related to the individual department budgets.  Commissioner Degnen did state she had some line-item questions, but would schedule a separate, private meeting.

Highlights from the Meeting with the Assessor
Assessor Fritz Kaegi Identified several key accomplishments in 2020:

• Over 100,000 online appeals from the initial assessments processed
• 1.07 million online and auto-renewal exemptions
• New, award-winning website
• Roll out of phase 1 of the Tyler Integrated Property Tax System
• No findings of unlawful political discrimination since taking office and significant progress in meeting the requirements under Shakman, including implementing an employment plan, achieving a fully-staffed HR department, conducting performance evaluations for the first time in 10 years, and an updated and finalized employee handbook
• Rebuilding office capacity per the International Association of Assessing Officers audit, including 31 new hires in compliance with Shakman
• Triennial reassessment of South Suburbs
• Dealing with the effects of COVID, which included reducing some assessments across the County.  This will be reflected in the 2nd property tax bill of 2021.

Priorities for 2021 include:

• On-time completion of the City of Chicago triennial reassessment (the City comprises 52% of the total County assessments)
• Continuing to build quality data to provide fair, uniform assessments.  Assessor Kaegi says key to this is passage in Springfield of the Data Modernization Bill, that failed to come out of Committee this spring session.  Assessor Kaegi said that this bill would be particularly useful in correctly assessing smaller properties which aren’t usually correctly reflected in other data sources.
• While Springfield did authorize automatic renewals of the senior exemption, and for this year only, automatic renewals of the senior freeze and veterans with disability exemption, the Assessor hopes to get Springfield to continue such automatic renewals.
• Commissioner Miller asked about the number of appeals in Cook County vs. norms elsewhere.  Assessor Kaegi said they are higher here because of past inaccurate assessments.  First step is to improve the accuracy, which he says his office is doing and keeps working on improving.  Second step is the need for transparency, and he is posting his methodology.  Once people have trust again, the number of appeals should go down.

Again, no questions on the proposed budget, though Commissioner Degnen stated she had already met with the Assessor’s office to raise her questions.

Note: slide presentations given at all these meetings are available under “Meeting Details” for each meeting, which is listed on  https://cook-county.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

Observer:  Priscilla Mims