27 Comments - Mama - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 9:42 am: “if Springfield passes county pension reform proposal by end of this summer.” Cook county only or all counties? - Lil Squeezy - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 9:46 am: Basing revenues on a likely to be found unconstitutional pension bill is a bad idea. - RNUG - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 9:47 am: Someone else, who should know better, thinks they can leverage a crisis … - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 9:51 am: === And during Q and A about why pension bill failed she said he was nominee at time and called Durkin to pull votes off === Preckwinkle is delusional. Why were legislators going to take another tough vote on pension “reform” while the litigation was still pending? And now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the pensioners, what makes her think that legislators will want to tackle that beast now? - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 10:04 am: This means Chicago residents might only face city and state tax hikes while their property taxes are also being reassessed? What a relief. /s - VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 10:08 am: There is no harm in being seen as reluctant to raise taxes. If you are a government executive, tax revenue and spending is what you do. If you are an elected government executive, it does no harm to remind voters it is what you do when it becomes necessary to do it. - Chicago (d) - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 10:09 am: SCOTUS confirmed that the ACA is the law of the land. I dont understand why Cook County still maintains such a robust Free Health System. 90% of the County Hospital patients would be fully subsidized. Its time to cut back on County Healthcare and NOT raise taxes. - Robert the Bruce - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 10:18 am: ==”I would argue there’s no person in Cook County more hesitant to raise the sales tax than I am.”== Preckwinkle is assuming that those who are bad at mathematics will be equally bad at argumentation. - Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 10:35 am: Make up your mind, already. That bill ain’t gonna get less unconstitutional by letting it fester over the summer. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 10:38 am: President Preckwinkle is wrong about one thing. I am more passionate against a tax increase than she is! Lets cut the programs, and patronage first. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 10:49 am: Somebody see Todd Stroger’s ghost? - Todd - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 10:55 am: Let me see if I understand this, She complain about revenue and looks at a tax hike, but then wanted out of the ABATE Poker Run bill that would have people come into the county, spend $$$ on gas, food, drink and bring business into the county? You don’t get to have it both ways. - Urban Girl - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 11:02 am: It’s a smart public stance. I wonder what her advisors are telling her privately about the likelihood of her pension plan being upheld by the IL Supreme Court. @Chicago(d) - Pretty sure that the County got out in front of the ACA by creating their own insurance plan. They are now trying to figure out how to change their customer service mindset as with the creation of that insurance plan, patients that previously selected them as a provider of last resort now have options. - anon - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 11:04 am: As discussed in postings last month, her County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has issued an opinion letter that Preckwinkle’s pension cut plan is unconstitutional. - walker - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 11:10 am: ==Lets cut the programs, and patronage first.== If you’ve followed Toni at all, she has done a lot of both, and has gotten appropriate credit for it even among Cook Co suburban Republicans. The big magilla for her is public healthcare. I’d put Fritchey and Schneider as “more hesitant” to raise sales taxes, though for entirely different reasons. - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 11:29 am: Well…what if her idea mirrors the language and intent of SB 777? A pension holiday/ramp for Cook County? Perhaps that is what she’s seeking. I’m not in the know, so please correct me if I’m wrong. - Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 12:02 pm: ==- anon - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 11:04 am:== Anita “Necro” Alvarez isn’t knowing for presenting the best legal or logical accounts of things. - Hon. John Fritchey - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 12:51 pm: -walker- Since I’ve already posted online elsewhere, let me clarify my position for everybody. I am a no on the sales tax hike. Not a yes, not a maybe, a no. That being said, I am fairly confident that she will have the votes to pass the hike. But mine won’t be one of them. And regardless of what my former colleagues in the Legislature do with the President’s pension reform bill, I think it is disingenuous and illusory to talk about revisiting a sales tax hike at any point before the court would rule on the inevitable challenge. - Vegetarianlush - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 1:01 pm: Her pension plan is unconstitutional !!!!! - anon - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 1:49 pm: I think it is disingenuous and illusory to pretend that her pension cuts are constitutional. - Truthteller - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 2:03 pm: =don’t understand why the County maintains such a robust health system+ Maybe it’s because there are thousands of its residents who need care and have no place else to go. In fact the ACA, mainly through the expansion of Medicaid, has enabled the County to lower its subsidy to the county health system. County is now getting payment for folks who were previously uninsured - Wake Up! - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 2:28 pm: - anon - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 1:49 pm: I think it is disingenuous and illusory to pretend that her pension cuts are constitutional. ——————————- Yes, plainly unconstitutional and she must know it, but what is her end game? - Juvenal - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 3:05 pm: The governor will get blamed for the property tax increase in Chicago, you might as well blame him for the sales tax hike in Cook County too. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 4:10 pm: ==I think it is disingenuous and illusory to pretend that her pension cuts are constitutional== Bingo. Her pension ==savings== are about as ==real== as those proposed by Gov Rauner in his budget speech. - qualified someone nobody sent - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 5:53 pm: Cook County’s two pension funds are no where in as bad shape as the States or as the city of Chicago. 90% funded prior to the great recession as I recall. The issue of Constitutionality has been decided by the Supremes. SEIU and the other non-AFCSME unions who supported Toni’s “reform” legislation aren’t going for it again after the State l unions won their case. This move means to me she has her sights of the 5th floor on the other side of the building in four years! Let some one else worry about the County after 2018. - Chicago(D) - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 5:54 pm: @truthteller. Wow thanks and thank you Cook County for actually starting to bill an insurance company. The ACA provides health insurance for the poorest people at a full subsidy. These people can go to any doctor or hospital. The only thing they have to do is sign up. Lease out Stroger Hospital to a for profit company and let the ACA be the healthcare safety net for the poor and uninsured. The County needs revenue and they need to at least discuss service cuts before a tax increase is even proposed. Every patient that walks through those doors should be required to apply for Insurance and the subsidy. Can’t have it both ways. - Tone - Tuesday, Jun 30, 15 @ 10:40 pm: Cuts are imperative. Tax increases must be a last resort. 10% budget cuts and layoffs are a great start. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.