* Greg Hinz reports something that’s being discussed widely in Cook County Democratic circles. Voters are refusing to sign the Democratic slate petitions because they have Toni Preckwinkle’s name on them…
Democratic Organization precinct captains are running into something they rarely face as they pass candidate nominating petitions this fall: rejection. […]
“Voters aren’t just refusing to sign, they’re providing their own, not-so-kind editorial opinions” about Preckwinkle and County Assessor Joe Berrios, said one Democratic ward boss who asked not to be named. “The bulk of the comments are about the pop tax and county sales tax,” which Preckwinkle returned to level raised by her predecessor, Todd Stroger. […]
“It’s a huge problem,” said one source close to the matter who asked not to be named. Some precinct workers are resorting to folding over the top line of the nominating petition so that Preckwinkle’s name, which is listed first, is not visible when voters are asked to sign. […]
Dart has been advertising for volunteer petition passers on his Facebook page. Earlier this week he emailed supporters saying, “In order to get on the ballot we need your help circulating petitions and collecting signatures,” and directing them to a sign up page.
A spokeswoman said Dart is passing both the joint petition and one for himself alone. He has done that in the past, but did not do so four years ago, she said.
Sometimes, I’m told, voters are writing “messages” to Preckwinkle on the petitions.
*** UPDATE *** Tribune…
Cook County Board Commissioner John Daley has decided to vote to repeal the controversial soda tax, boosting the chances for repeal next week.
“I am going to vote to repeal,” Daley told the Chicago Tribune. “I listened to the community, the residents I represent, and there’s been a strong outcry.
“It’s a lot of taxes they’ve been hit with,” added Daley, referring to city property taxes, garbage fees and the recent increase in the state income tax. “It’s every economic group. It’s every ethnic group. It’s every part of the district.” […]
Several commissioners said Daley’s flip on the issue could cause a domino effect among the other seven commissioners who originally supported the tax. But Daley said he won’t try to sway anyone and that commissioners have to make the best decisions they can in the interest of the people they represent.
* Related…
* Preckwinkle: County has ‘reached moment of truth’ on budget, pop tax: Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Thursday struck a defiant tone defending the controversial soda pop tax as she delivered her 2018 budget address, telling commissioners to back the tax or make severe cuts to county services.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:08 pm:
Good about time we get some voter revolt
- Anonish - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:12 pm:
I have had more push back on the slate petition over Berrios than Preckwinkle
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:12 pm:
So … who’s running?
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:14 pm:
“…about Preckwinkle and County Assessor Joe Berrios”
Roh-roh. Voters noticing Berrios? That’s not a good thing for certain people…
- wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:15 pm:
This is one for the how-not-to books. Consumption taxes have been around since the country’s founding. They were the very first taxes.
Now on top of the disastrously incoherent rollout, you have Preckwinkle saying it’s all about the money, while Bloomberg is spending millions on TV saying it’s all about kids health.
How much more can you confuse the issue?
- Texas Red - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:19 pm:
I’d like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony…
- Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:21 pm:
–“It’s a huge problem,” said one source close to the matter who asked not to be named. Some precinct workers are resorting to folding over the top line of the nominating petition so that Preckwinkle’s name, which is listed first, is not visible when voters are asked to sign.–
Well if you can’t get people to sign honestly, make do I guess.
- Amalia - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:21 pm:
Yep, told ya this was going to be bad. I usually sign petitions just to allow ballot access. This one….NOPE. Toni + Berrios = rotten
- TKMH - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:23 pm:
This is hilarious - looking forward to voting her out come primary time.
- Ron - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:27 pm:
I will vote for virtually anyoneone but Prekwinkle.
She is worse than Stroger.
- phocion - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:32 pm:
…and why doesn’t she have a primary opponent yet?
- ChrisB - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:38 pm:
==telling commissioners to back the tax or make severe cuts to county services.==
It’s almost as if the voters are telling you exactly what their preference is.
- Real - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:48 pm:
I people are being too crybaby over this penny an ounce soda tax. They act as if paying a few pennys for pop is going to kill them or steer them to bankruptcy. Pop is not a necessity so these people need to relax and stop complaining. Also, I think Precwinkle should go ahead and cut services instead of fight with these people over a small tax. Cut services and let them deal with that.
- Skin in game - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:55 pm:
What Preckwinkle should do is offer to repeal the pop tax if Big Soda offers to pay a penny per ounce into the Cook County Health and Hospital System. This way, the soda industry is paying for the health problems they create. They can decide whether to pass the penny/oz fee on to their consumers.
- Cheryl44 - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:56 pm:
I agree with Real.
- Ron - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:57 pm:
Does the donut industry pay the County? How about beef farmers? Oreo maker?
- Ron - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 12:58 pm:
“I think Precwinkle should go ahead and cut services instead of fight with these people over a small tax. Cut services and let them deal with that.”
I agree, that’s what we want anyway.
- City Zen - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:02 pm:
==Pop is not a necessity…===
Neither are inept Cook County Board Presidents.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:03 pm:
Ed Burke’s special delivery snowplowing might be in danger.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:04 pm:
(Sorry, forgot, that’s probably not county. But *somebody’s* special delivery snowplowing would be in danger
)
- Real - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:08 pm:
Neither are inept Cook County Board Presidents.
====
Her job is to fill a budget hole. Do you have a better way to do that?
- Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:11 pm:
–Her job is to fill a budget hole. Do you have a better way to do that?–
Yeah, let’s try the cuts. Seemed to go OK while the tax was in legal limbo.
- northernwatersports - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:12 pm:
The time has come for the political leaders to put their spine and their courage where they should have been decades ago, both D and R. I usually don’t accept the thesis that bitter medicine can always teach people to appreciate prevention of the disease, but the general public here in my great State have all learned the bad habits of putting off paying for things with artificially low taxes for decades, increasing debts and no noticeable improvements in efficiency, etc. The unions are generally complicit in the implementation of trends that put us where we are today.
So, I would counsel all of the D’s on the county board to vote to repeal the Soda tax, lower the sales tax down to pre-Stroger days, and then drop the hammer.
Amputate.
Cut county spending back on ALL things that won’t create immediate and increased risks to life, health or safety. Close all the golf courses, forest preserve groves across the county. There are plenty of things that could get cut back. Yes, it will cause pain. Yes, I agree its a poor method of causing people to pay attention to the issue at hand. If you want services, someone is going to pay.
When enough pain reaches enough people, voters will crave to pay more. Right? If voters, consumers, property owners and others who pay the taxes in cook county don’t want to pay, they’ll finally have to look in the mirror and tell themselves, ‘I’ll just have to live without it.’
- Ron - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:14 pm:
–Her job is to fill a budget hole. Do you have a better way to do that?–
Yeah, let’s try the cuts. Seemed to go OK while the tax was in legal limbo.
x 1,000,000
- Real - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:16 pm:
Yeah, let’s try the cuts. Seemed to go OK while the tax was in legal limbo.
====
Those cuts never fully materialized while it was in limbo. I have a friend that works for a Cook County hospital that was on the verge of being laid off, but it didn’t materialize when the legal case failed. I believe Precwinkle should do drastic cuts so these people can stop complaining about a petty soda tax. Let these people get hurt by drastic cuts. I have no ideal why she rather fight with these people over a pop tax.
- Ron - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:18 pm:
Very few people will be hurt by these cuts.
- northernwatersports - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:19 pm:
I say drop the hammer. Repeal the soda tax, and knock the sales tax back to pre-Stroger days.
Then….
Start amputating. Demonstrate to the public what will happen and maybe people will pay attention enough to really be involved in deciding what it is they want to really pay for. Until that cold, harsh and desperate moment when people realize what they had, they don’t care who’s paying for it, as long as its not themselves.
Unintended consequence…..The R commissioners on the County Board will be forced to vote FOR all the cuts, or be found hipocrites for their lack of governing ability as well.
Lets see how fast the public cries out when all the forest preserve groves and golf courses around the county get closed and blocked off.
- Real - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:20 pm:
Yeah, only the most vulnerable that need those services would. A healthy middle aged man would probably not be hurt. Idk if you can say the same about those that rely on those services that would be cut.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:23 pm:
==Those cuts never fully materialized while it was in limbo. I have a friend that works for a Cook County hospital that was on the verge of being laid off, but it didn’t materialize when the legal case failed. I believe Precwinkle should do drastic cuts so these people can stop complaining about a petty soda tax. Let these people get hurt by drastic cuts. I have no ideal why she rather fight with these people over a pop tax.==
Cut away. besides the hospital, which is mostly funded by medicaid, and the jail/courts. not sure what else the county is good for.
Is preckwinkle really throwing out threats like property tax bills will be late? Really?
- City Zen - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:25 pm:
==Her job is to fill a budget hole. Do you have a better way to do that?==
Use existing dirt.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:27 pm:
Cut the bloated Hospital Administration not the people doing the actual work and nobody will notice
- Taxed to death - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:34 pm:
There is lots to cut in the County budget. The State’s Attorney’s Office laid off experienced attorneys and that same day hire less experienced people at HIGHER salaries. The “promotions” (higher salaries) going on there is crazy. Plus NO ONE in the court system — SA, PDs, etc works a full 8 hour day. Implement at sign in and sign out system and the waste is apparent.
- Responsa - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:47 pm:
Your “defiant tone” and childish foot stompy refusal to put forth or consider any alternatives says it all, Madame President Toni.
==”Preckwinkle will not provide an alternate spending plan in the event the pop tax is repealed next week, county officials said. Instead, she intends to leave the decision on what gets cut and how deeply to commissioners and separately elected countywide officials, even as she continues to warn in public that such spending reductions would mean laying off doctors and nurses, prosecutors, public defenders, sheriff’s officers and jail guards”.==
- TKMH - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:50 pm:
Repeal the tax, close the golf courses. Make sure you actually hire competent people to run the morgue. That simple.
- Trapped in the 'burbs - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 1:53 pm:
None of this matters unless somebody circulates petitions against her. I will vote for anybody other than her-ANYBODY.
- Rookie Writer - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 2:00 pm:
I’ll admit to a bit of sticker-shock when I bought an iced tea from Walgreen’s a couple of weeks ago when I was thirsty and ran to grab something.
But I am still for the tax — without revenue to keep services going, we could end up with an increase of people roaming the streets creating a public health crisis. No thanks.
The problem I do see: this will never get reversed. If we find efficiencies elsewhere, what tax will be reversed? None.
- West Side the Best Side - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 2:27 pm:
Trapped makes a great point. The precinct captains are going to get enough signatures, they’re just just to have to work harder, so it’s never going to happen that Toni doesn’t make the ballot. What Dem will not be afraid of their own shadow (or Berrios’ shadow) to mount a challenge? Will the Repubs put up a candidate who can run a campaign in Cook County that will actually play in Cook County, in other words someone ILGOP will probably call a RINO.
- Ron - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 2:35 pm:
It’s extremely unfortunate that IL Dems have to be water carriers for the public employee unions. Cut the jobs and slash their pay. That’s what needs to be done.
- earl hickey - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 2:42 pm:
“Some precinct workers are resorting to folding over the top line of the nominating petition so that Preckwinkle’s name, which is listed first, is not visible when voters are asked to sign. […]”
I don’t know which is worse, the fact they are hiding her name or the fact that signers aren’t catching on to this trick.
Just wait unti this story gets a wider audience
- BigLou - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 2:48 pm:
Hey Rich, here’s a question fof the day. Since Preckwinkle/Berrios petitions are difficult to pass, what combo would have no problem getting signatures?
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 2:59 pm:
Real, your concerns about social services are real, but they could be addressed in other ways. Why not just increase the taxes a tiny fraction across the board rather? Or why not at least try to cure some of the criticized aspects of the tax: that it covers calorie-free drinks but doesn’t cover coffee drinks (something I dare say makes the tax more regressive than if it did cover those things)?
As for the cuts hurting the needy, probably it will, but at the same time we heard this complaint when the Democrats warned how terrible sequestration would be. A couple years later Obama was taking credit for it and how it cut the budget deficit. In an age of rapid tech disruption, it’s hard to believe that there aren’t some efficiency savings to be found somewhere in Cook County government.
- City Zen - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 3:15 pm:
==we could end up with an increase of people roaming the streets creating a public health crisis. ==
The county budget is $4.4 billion. The expected revenue from the soda tax is $200 million. So over 4% of the budget, Cook County is suddenly going to devolve into The Walking Dead?
- Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 3:25 pm:
To the update - Daley flipping could be the beginning of the end.
- Texas Red - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 3:50 pm:
I love the way the Dem’s on the CB are for a tax until the population revolts and then they are against it. Classic flip-flop, Dem’s should have the courage of their convictions by supporting more revenue and better health at the expense of other people money.
- Amalia - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 3:51 pm:
yep, Daley flipped. tax over. hope that new commercial with the minister sad about the children who are lured by the pop (apparently with parents who are unable to watch them when they are not in school) will be off my tv soon.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 3:52 pm:
===I love the way the Dem’s on the CB are for a tax until the population revolts and then they are against===
It’s not just the Democrats on the board. The Republican governor was pushing a very similar tax last spring.
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 3:52 pm:
I’m reading these comments, but I just can’t seem to focus on the names.
I keep seeing Big Soda…Big Soda….Big Soda…Big Soda….
This is like going down the rabbit hole.
Coca Cola:
20 oz bottle = 65 grams sugar
1 liter = 108g
Big Gulp = 91g
Super Gulp = 128g
Extreme Gulp = 146g
Double Gulp = 186g
Daily healthy sugar limit: 25g (women) 38g (men)
This is a good tax.
- Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 3:54 pm:
–yep, Daley flipped. tax over.–
Not yet, but it would force Preckwinkle to have to double down on the tax and veto the repeal. Still need a couple more votes to override a veto I think.
- Mea Gulpa - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 3:55 pm:
This is why it is way too early to count Rauner out next year.
- Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 3:56 pm:
–Coca Cola:
20 oz bottle = 65 grams sugar
1 liter = 108g
Big Gulp = 91g
Super Gulp = 128g
Extreme Gulp = 146g
Double Gulp = 186g
Daily healthy sugar limit: 25g (women) 38g (men)
This is a good tax.–
If it’s so good, why apply it to Diet Coke then when all the same sugar numbers are zeros?
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:07 pm:
=If it’s so good, why apply it to Diet Coke then when all the same sugar numbers are zeros?=
Diet Coke has its own problems/chemicals - may change gut bacteria, etc.
I quit drinking all soda. I quit drinking orange juice, too ( 8 oz. = 22g sugar - oranges are healthy, orange juice is not)
I drink tap water, work out 90 minutes a day, lost 20 pounds (and I’m only 5′2′’ so that’s a lot)
The purpose of the tax is raise revenue. Can’t think of better stuff to tax.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:15 pm:
Remember when Quinn introduced the “cuts only” budget and practically every legislator in the statehouse voted against it? Then they voted to approve the budget without any cuts at all, and then voted against taxes to pay for the budget without cuts that they had just approved? That was a fun day. Preckwinkle should do the same, right before she proposes the budget that includes the soda tax. Let’s get a look at what passes for courage on the Cook county board.
- City Zen - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:19 pm:
==Can’t think of better stuff to tax.==
Saturated fats.
- MacombMike - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:19 pm:
===The county budget is $4.4 billion. The expected revenue from the soda tax is $200 million. So over 4% of the budget, Cook County is suddenly going to devolve into The Walking Dead?===
Looks like the 2018 budget is $5.36 billion. Seems to me Preckwinkle increased spending by nearly $1 billion.
- Steve - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:29 pm:
This is a big story. John Daley is a very important person in Cook County government. John Daley wouldn’t change his mind unless he saw major evidence of the need to go back on his soda tax vote. Say what you want of John Daley but… he does attempt to listen and display a certain amount of class that many politicians lack.
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:37 pm:
=Saturated fats=
We can tax that next year.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:45 pm:
Her tax is well meaning, good for the health of Illinois citizens and could pug some Cook County budget gaps. I supported it, but looks like the populace is tilting against it.
- Ron - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:48 pm:
Cook County government needs a diet.
- Ron - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:51 pm:
How about a simple spending freeze for a year? Every single Cook Agency told to deal with it.
- City Zen - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 4:52 pm:
==We can tax that next year.==
After we tax retirement income.
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 6:41 pm:
=looks like the populace is tilting against it=
Gee, I wonder what coulda caused that?
(Hint: Big Soda?)
- Responsa - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 7:38 pm:
===looks like the populace is tilting against it=
=Gee, I wonder what coulda caused that?
(Hint: Big Soda?)==
Hey, thanks for giving us the unforgettable mental image of “big soda” standing in the grocery checkout line beside otherwise happy customers and forcing them to freak out over the new soda tax on their bills.
- Joe - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 8:14 pm:
just a few more months and my diet coke habit should have the county in the black
- TKMH - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 9:44 pm:
TinyDancer,
I can assure you, I’ve cut more checks to BigSoda than vice versa. I’m all for raising taxes when necessary, but there’s something so viscerally obscene at effectively taxing me at 35% when I buy a 12-pack of Coke Zero (which I now buy in Lake County). Add this news to the Trib report on Berrios’ treatment of poor people’s property taxes, and you can see why even liberal voters like myself are so enraged at the old guard Cook County Dem machine.
- revvedup - Thursday, Oct 5, 17 @ 9:46 pm:
Toni has her faults…hubris and arrogance in the best late Harold Washington terms regrading her sweet beverage tax, and trying to sue the Marketer’s Association for the $17 million tax revenue loss during the injunction phase of this fiasco. BUT, she also took over a county far more broke than it is today, and thought she could ride the waves of voter angst until they quieted…until the waves built way higher than she could handle. Now the County Board is about to revolt, while businesses report decreased revenues unless they are outside cook county. She can’t dismount the tiger she’s been riding, while Busybody Bloomberg’s ads keeping harping that sugar causes diabetes (it does not). I live in a south-eastern cook county suburb minutes from Indiana, and I drive to stock up on “assault sodas”, gasoline, and other items. Tony needs a humbling reality check; maybe repeal isit.
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:01 am:
Does sugar cause diabetes?
“…the results of a large epidemiological study suggest sugar may also have a direct, independent link to diabetes.”
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2013/02/quantity-of-sugar-in-food-supply-linked-to-diabetes-rates-researcher-says.html
- Red tower - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 7:26 am:
Seems to me folding over the top of the form trying to disguise what people are signing is an act of election fraud. Or some sort of fraud. And if someone wanted to they could probably sue or challenge petitions folded as such.
- Buyout is key - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:15 pm:
Let’s face it, the only reason for this tax was to keep all those employees around. Cut the tax and instead of layoffs. Offer those employees with 25 to 30years a buyout so you wouldn’t have to layoff anyone, or layoff much less than you would have to in order to balance the budget. It makes sense to offer the folks who are close to retiring a chance to leave. Then you can keep those younger employees who probably have young families employed. Health care costs are probably cheaper too. Something to take into consideration.
- Over Taxed - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:36 pm:
I agree with buyout. I read an article in the Chicago Sun-Times where 35% of employees were over 50years old making 6 figures due to seniority and tenure. Time to offer the older workers a buyout so younger people who make half that can continue to work. Plus you’ll get more productivity out of them as well I’m sure. Less sick and vacation days too.hmm