Cook County Commissioners Ask Many Questions during First Meeting on Proposed 2018 Budget

​Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
October 23, 2017

Bureau of Finance
Auditor
Director of Administrative Hearings
Public Administrator

Commissioners absent for all or most of the meetings:  Butler and Goslin
Commissioners present:  Arroyo, Boykin, Daley, Deer, Fritchey, Gainer, Garcia, Moody, Moore, Morrison, Schneider, Silvestri, Sims, Suffredin, Tobolski 

Items of Interest: 
This was the first budget meeting with departments since the Executive (proposed) budget was presented to the Board.  Accordingly, the Bureau of Finance gave an overview of the budget before presenting the individual department budgets within the Bureau.

• This budget (and all the numbers listed in this report) does not reflect the repeal of the Sweetened Beverage Tax, which occurred after the President presented this budget.  A number of Commissioners complained that they wished the budget had been redone to reflect this change.  The Budget Director committed to working with them to craft amendments to balance the final budget.
• The gap resulting from the repeal is $173.4 million for the General Fund plus $27.2 million from the Health Fund for a total of $200.6 million that has to be made up in the Operating Budget.
• The total proposed budget of $5.36 Billion (up from $4.8 Billion in 2017) is composed of
  • Operating Budget of $ 4.914 Billion
  • Capital Budget of $476.5 million
• The Operating Budget, in turn, broken down by control officer, is 

               Health & Hospitals System (“HHS”) restricted expenditures
                                             (which cannot be reduced by the Board):                                  $1,205.1 million
               HHS non-restricted operating:                                                                                   $  848.0 million
               Sheriff:                                                                                                                           $  625.4 million
               Fixed Charges (includes pension costs, reserves legal settlements,
                                      and other costs not directly assigned to departments)                    $   541.6 million
              Offices under the President:                                                                                         $  306.1 million
              Chief Judge:                                                                                                                     $   264.2 million
              State’s Attorney:                                                                                                             $    123.3 million
              Clerk of the Circuit Court:                                                                                              $   105.6 million
              Assessor:                                                                                                                          $     27.5 million
              Board of Review:                                                                                                             $      11.5 million
              County Clerk:                                                                                                                   $      11.2 million
              Board of Commissioners:                                                                                               $      8.3 million
              Recorder of Deeds:                                                                                                          $      7.1 million
              Treasurer:                                                                                                                           $      1.1 million

• While the Fixed Charges category has been reduced from that of past years to assign individual departments health and other benefit costs, Comm. Gainer hopes that next year pension costs will also be assigned so the true costs of employees will be known.
• The Bureau of Finance is composed of the Chief Financial Officer and departments of Revenue, Risk Management, Budget & Management Services, Comptroller, Contract Compliance, and Procurement.
• Comm. Schneider and Morrison, among others, questioned the Dept. of Revenue’s proposal to add 3 FTE’s (Full Time Equivalents) which were originally to administer the Sweetened Beverage Tax, and now are to be used to assist in collecting the other Home Rule taxes.  The Dept. estimates that these additional FTE’s would result in an additional $3 million in revenues to the County.  Comm. Morrison thinks that far more could be collected by investigating businesses who should no longer have the 212 Tax Incentive.  However, this is administered by the Assessor.  The Dept. of Revenue’s budget is $9 million, but it brings in $485 million in taxes owed to the County through its collection and audit activities.
• Comm. Fritchey commented that several years ago the Board had passed an ordinance requiring that zero-based budgeting be used.  Under that, rather than each department starting from the prior year’s budget and adjusting upward or downward, each department would have started from $0 and then justify each proposed expenditure.  The ordinance was radically changed in 2015, and Comm. Fritchey argued that the County would be better off if the original ordinance has been fully enacted.
• Comm. Fritchey also wanted to know when the County last had a serious conversation with Chicago about partnering to reduce costs.  Some of the easy efficiencies have been accomplished.
• Comm. Boykin and Silvestri questioned whether significant cost savings could be achieved by consolidating functions, such as Human Resources and Technology.  For example, Procurement handles all, except for HHS, which has its own.  
• Comm. Schneider questioned what had happened to the $386 million in savings to the County as a result of the County reducing its support of HHS over the past 7 years (from $486 million to $110 million proposed for 2018).  The CFO said he would be glad to explain it to him outside of this meeting.
• Chairman Daley requested, prior to the start of these budget meetings, that each Elected Official and the HHS submit a proposal for reducing their budgets by 10% as a result of the repeal of the Sweetened Beverage Tax.  The President’s Chief of Staff appeared to explain how all the Offices under the President would do so by cutting some areas under the President, and not others, and by increasing some revenues, such as by increased enforcement activities in the Dept. of Revenue.  He also identified potential risks and consequences of making the cuts, such as putting at risk the Medical Examiner’s accreditation that was recently received.
• The separate Department of Administrative Hearings, which adjudicates county-issued tickets for infractions of ordinances, continues to be a low-cost way of bringing in revenues to the County, saving all entities the costs of going to court.  For 2018, it will also be adjudicating tickets written by Amtrak and the BNSF Railway Police, which should result in $100,000 to $150,000 in additional revenues.  In addition, as a result of a change in Illinois law in 2017, this Department can also hear cases arising out of municipal code violations, and it will be reaching out to municipalities in Cook County to see if they would like the Department to take this function over for them.

The slide presentations at each of these meetings are available under “Meeting Details” for each meeting listed by date. In addition, there you can find any applicable responses to Chairman Daley’s letter requesting a 10% reduction in the budget.

Observer - Priscilla Mims