10 Comments - Levois - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 9:02 am: History is made R. Kelly the man behind “I Believe I Can Fly” has made the Capitol Fax. I’m honored to be here! - Cassandra - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 9:07 am: I live in the troubled Chicago suburb of Oak Park, paying some of the highest property taxes in the country, and there is nothing I’d like better than to secede from Cook County. I so understand the anger of Palatine residents. But I think Stroger is right on this one. This type of meeting should be handled by a subordinate who can plausibly say he represents the President’s office and will convey concerns to the Prez. Not that I think proper management techniques are the reason Stroger declined. He probably didn’t want to face a room of angry white folks. After all, he is used to the wealthy white IPO types in Chicago, who are almost universally adoring and provide tons of cash. - PC - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 9:32 am: Can Matt Murphy say, “Election year stunt”? All this was meant to do was rile up the Northwest Tax Watch, Family Taxpayers Network crowd. That said, there is merit to a pol going in to a hostile meeting, taking the heat, presenting his side of the issue and going on his way with dignity. - fan of Capitol Fax - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 9:37 am: Does it seem strange to anyone that Suffredin continues to get a pass for doing a complete 180 and voting for the tax increase? Coverage on Stroger almost always references that he recently got a tax increase passed and these articles never point to Suffredin as Stroger’s enabler. the fact he did this shortly after running commercials lauding himself for “standing up to Stroger’s attempts to increase taxes” during his most recent campaign should make this switch even more egregious and merit constant reminders IMO. Is there some reason the press seems to be intentionally going easy on him (maybe there is; maybe there is some detail that ameliorates Suffredins seemingly astounding 180. Can someone enlighten me??) - wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 9:39 am: Secession is a silly issue. Hard to believe people are putting any time to it. - Captain America - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 9:42 am: More blatantly bad PR moves by Stroger.He doesn’t seem to be benfiting form his on-the-job training Hiring a completely unqualified former Streets and Sanitation Manager for an unauthorized $99,000 job in the Health Services Bureau - a position with job responsibilities he knew nothing about.Oh, I forgot he was a health club employee! Stroger decides to be a “no-show” for a meeting he agreed to attend in response to the outcry his tax increase created, thus extending and heightening the controversy. To parphrase the immortal; Casey Stengel”Can’t anybody there play this game.Stroger is the best possible argument that the recall amendment should include local officials. Secrecy/nondisclosure agreements will not suffice to preclude evidence of pervasive incompetence in the Stroger administration. it’s inevitable that this ineptitude will surface repeatedly in the media. - Garp - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 10:25 am: Todd Stroger has made bad PR an art form. He really is unprecedented. If you are not going to go to the meeting, don’t agree to go. The recent handling of the employee gag order was just plain ridiculous. I now firmly believe that he has hired an anti-PR company that has created ways for him to look stupid on a weekly basis. It is all part of a carefully crafted scheme that allows him to plead ignorance to any future corruption charges. It is working on me. - Dan Vock - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 10:37 am: Also interesting how ancient news becomes relevant again… http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/a_holiday_from_gas_prices.html - cclobbyist - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 1:04 pm: People, who want to leave Cook County, please do so. But first look at your property tax bills, if you notice the dollar amount that goes to COOK COUNTY GOVERNMENT, has been the same for over the past 10years. Its your local governments (city government, schools, etc..) that has caused your property taxes to go up. Not Cook County, for those who cry about the sales tax, before the increase Cook County hadnt raised its portion of the sales tax in over 10 years, how many of you could live on the pay same pay your earned 15 years ago, you can’t. For folks in the northwest suburbs, nobody from your municipalities complained when the sales tax issue was brought up, actually some of the elected officals from Palentine, advocated for a property tax increase!!! I am glad that President Stroger didnt go to the meeting because all it was, was a witch hunt created by not the mayor of Palentine but the village manager. One more thing for those who want to leave Cook County, 1) you will have to pay for a new jail, new sheriff, new courthouse, new clinics, oh and you’d have to pay Cook county to purchase the Forest Preserves. 2) You would then after you spent all that money on capital just to build your new buildings, you have to pay the employees salaries, health care and pensions. 3) Lastly in your crying over higher taxes now wait and see how much your taxes would be with a smaller tax base, because Chicago would not be leaving. Yet you will have to pay for the creation of all the new items needed to run a county. LOL or your new county could just contract to the Cook County to provide the services. - Garp - Wednesday, Apr 30, 08 @ 2:09 pm: Daley has to pay for all his lawsuits somehow, so why not on the backs of drivers. Parking tickets, red light cameras and anything else big brother will think of. Take the car away and they have to pony up the cash-right or wrong. Chicago has created an entire taxing body to get citizens money and just try to fight it. Entire neighborhoods are zoned parking and they are patroled by parking enforcement constantly-preying upon anyone who needs to park. It is a joke and the most glaring example of the corruption tax. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.