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Overreaction

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Drowned out by all the screaming over Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s proposed budget cuts, which will eliminate almost 1,500 positions and cut various budgets, was this little nugget:

Stroger had a $500 million hole to fill in the $3 billion budget and wiped out a good chunk of the deficit by refinancing debt and increasing efforts to collect hospital bills.

And this one:

The plan released Tuesday proposed eliminating 1,492 full-time positions, but only about 30 percent are currently filled, Budget Director Donna Dunnings said.

As a result, despite the headlines, only about 450 people will lose their jobs. And it’s not even clear if all of those will be out the door, considering union rules, etc.

Today’s Tribune editorial summed it up well.

…But at first glance, the 2007 budget proposed Tuesday by Cook County Board President Todd Stroger tries to do what his father, John, didn’t do when he occupied that chair. Todd Stroger proposes to give county officials far fewer dollars than they want–and then force them to meet those smaller numbers.

You could see how deeply that notion threatens Cook County’s culture of spending entitlement by studying the grimaces of officials listening to Stroger’s budget address. Assessor James Houlihan, Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, State’s Atty. Richard Devine–Stroger essentially wants to make them and other managers give taxpayers less costly and better services. […]

Expect the alarmists to sow public panic that less spending will embolden criminals or cripple health care for the poor. On Tuesday, though, Dr. Robert Simon, the county’s top health officer, asserted that some of the scarifying is mistaken. Example: The county intends to close 16 of its 26 clinics–some of which, he said, serve few patients. Simon predicted initially longer lines at remaining clinics as patients and medical resources shift. But he said that those surviving clinics can absorb all of the displaced patients–and offer them longer hours of medical services.

Everybody expects Stroger to continue the old patronage ways, so hiring friends or giving jobs to the wives of pals probably won’t upset too many people outside of the pundit class, whose mostly white members will likely overreact and create another backlash in the black community. If he follows the Rod Blagojevich playbook and doesn’t raise general taxes, he’ll go a long way towards re-election.

Meanwhile, while we’re talking about local politics, this quote by Alderman Burt Natarus has to be our Quote of the Week. Natarus was speaking about the Chicago Federation of Labor’s endorsement of his opponent Brendan Reilly:

“(E)verywhere I am going in my ward, I happen to be well-liked.”

I’m sure.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 9:11 am

Comments

Who uses the Cook County health care system who has income or assets that can easily be collected?

Maybe the county can place liens on homes, but this money isn’t going to be collected quickly.

Color me skeptical that aggressively collecting bills is going to generate significantly more revenue than it costs to implement.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 9:26 am
According to reports, Stroger plans to close 16 of Cook County’s 26 neighborhood clinics. I like Todd, but these are exactly the kind of draconian cus he was accusing his opponent of plotting. It’ll force those same people to flood Stroger Hospital, where folks are already waiting a day or more for care unless their bleeding to death on the floor. In short: bad idea.

The sad idea is that Natarus might actually believe he’s well liked because he’s living in BizarroWorld. Whenever someone has the chutzpah to criticize him, he tends to go postal, so people tend to just seeth about him. Might also have something to do with the fact that he spends most of his nights sitting by himself a the Boss Bar where he thinks he’s “Norm.” Might also have alot to do with the fact that Bobblehead Burt left a community meeting last night that he had organized before it even started, so he didn’t actually meet with anybody.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 9:53 am
I know a couple of folks who get healthcare at Stroger because it’s easier than dealing with their insurer! They’re not poor (and in one egregious case, he didn’t live in Cook County!) so it does happen and it might be worth the time to try to get insurance moneys if they’re available. When I was a college student I went to Cook County after getting stung by a bee (hey I was in shock (allergic) and it was the closest hospital). No effort was made to bill or collect.

Comment by cermak_rd Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 10:00 am
As I understand it, many users of the Cook County system comes from outlying counties like DuPage, Will, Kane. These counties have public health clinics but no publci hospitals and apparently no good links with the local hospitals, all of which are supposed to provide at least some charity care. So through direct referral or through their own efforts, both low-income and uninsured middle class patients from Kane, Will, etc end up at Cook County where they get a free ride regardless of their ability to pay. And given the cost of medical care these days, this decision is economically sensible, for the outlying counties and for the individuals.

Would it be too much trouble for the underworked patronage employees in the Cook County Health Bureau to bill the other counties for their residents’ care? If that proves difficult, given their severe limitations in competence, they could have their Dem colleagues pass a bill in the legislature requiring such reimbursement.

Should Cook County taxpayers have to pay for medical care for out of county residents and for Cook County residents who can afford to pay or who even have insurance but prefer not to even pay the co-pays? Clearly, no. And even if collection costs are high, making people pay for care if they can afford it would go a long way towards improving public confidence in Cook County Hospital as a necessary institution.

Comment by Anon Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 10:03 am
â€œ(E)verywhere I am going in my ward, I happen to be well-liked.â€

Iâ€™m sure.

Rich,

I have shiney new Sacagawea Dollar for any likely girl or boy who can parse that sentence.

Skeeter - don’t try to diagram it though.

Comment by Pat Hickey Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 10:09 am
I’m not opposed to collecting money from people who receive services and can pay.

However, I’d be reluctant to project a significant amount of revenue gained until after it was proven how much revenue it will generate.

My understanding is that Stroger is trying to use smoke, mirrors and faith-based budgeting to close the deficit.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 10:25 am
Maybe Burt should go to some new places.

Comment by phocion Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 10:31 am
Rich, I have no idea the exact number of positions that are being cut. It should be noted that in the budget games Cook County government is notorius for playing, positions are shifted so much from one place to another that one may wonder if the job titles listed and where they are supposed to be at shouldn’t be labelled as fiction.

That said, I can report that the Hearing Officers of the Child Protection Division of Juvenile Court will all be eliminated under the Stroger budget. Not 17%… all of them. These are people who each day conduct the hearings for the judges and provide recommendations (which are almost always concurred with). They have been a vital part of dealing with abuse and neglect cases, helping families reunify where possible and helping these minors find a permanent placement as quickly as possible (as opposed to languishing in the system for years).

Nice reward for a job well done… and don’t let the door hit you in the rear on your way out! The problem is that these hearing officers are professionals, not politically-connected hacks.

I do not know how many others would share their fate if these budget proposals are approved. It may well be a lot more than 450 people (which would allow for the hiring of cronies and hacks in due time, to be piegon-holed within the court system). Please note; employees of the Chief Judge (such as these Hearing Officers) serve at the pleasure of the Chief Judge… there is no Shakman protection.

As for the children that have been served by the work of these Hearing Officers, you and other members of the Fourth Estate will have to ask Stroger, the County Board and the Chief Judge’s office for the answers to that question, as I am just a lowly county grunt, who is hardly in the position to make such a lofty judgement.

Comment by Randall Sherman Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 10:56 am
Arcola’s nice.

Comment by Pat Hickey Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 11:01 am
Claypool estimates that there are as many as 3,000 patronage “paper-pushing” jobs which could be eliminated.

For example, the same health care system where Stroger wants to slash two-thirds of the clinics has three p.r. departments, three h.r. departments, and three billing deprtments. None of those jobs are on the chopping block.

The Tribune has done a dogged job of opposing waste and corruption in county government and opposing tax increases. I think they we’re just so overjoyed Stroger wasn’t proposing a tax increase, they jumped on the bandwagon without taking a hard look at where the cuts were coming from. Chalk it up to “irrational exhuberance.”

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 11:35 am
The cuts are necesary, but a little bogus. The problem with Cook County government is too many managers (read “patronage hacks”), not too many workers. The cuts should be directed to cutting out middle management, but they are across the board.

As a side note, can you imagine the reaction if President Peraica had announced such cuts? Jesse Jackson Sr. and Jr. would be holding nightly candlelight vigils at the County Building, and Craig Dellimore would be having a field day over the “Republican plan to close public clinics in poor black neighborhoods.”

Comment by Bubs Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 11:37 am
Forrest and his handler Quigley are merely putting up hay for their political winter: the Chicago Tribune/University of Chicago (actual authors of)/& Quigley have invested a great deal of time and money in concocting this historic and revolutionary document -http://www.mikequigley.com/Reinventing_part1.pdf

which in essence was Hacksaw Mike’s plan to geld the Cook County Sheriff’s Department - that ship sailed and Quigley went on to kick TIFs in the shins and Forrest got sent to the woodshed- politics ain’t necessarily government but good government benefits from effective politicians. The Tribune will hail ‘any burp in the windstorm’ touted as tax-cutting reform - for now.

Comment by Pat Hickey Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 12:07 pm
With regard to Natarus:

That’s probably true. He spends all his time with rich developers, and they probably do like him.

Of course they like him. He never asks them questions about parking for their developments, or traffic, or even whether the building is going to look good in the neighborhood. If you look at his D-2, it is a virtual “Who’s Who” of developers.

http://www.elections.state.il.us/CampaignDisclosure/ItemizedContrib.aspx

Comment by Skeeter Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 12:33 pm
The problem with the plight of the Juvenile Court hearing officers, however wonderful those
good people may be, is that there are far too many cases in Juvenile Court and far too many kids in foster care in Cook County.

Now this is not only the Court’s fault. The state wants to maintain its huge DCFS bureaucracy in Cook County (the DCFS big contractors and management ranks are a virtual pork mega-farm for Democrats these days) and the only way they can do that is to remove far too many children, a disproportionate number of whom are African Americans. Or worse, they pretend to remove them then return them to their “extended families” with whom their parents are likely living, with a nice stipdend attached, courtesy of Illinois taxpayers. This practice helps maintain a huge and unnecessary bureaucracy, including the hearing officrs. The Juvenile Court could use the bully pulpit to advocate for the kids and families, but they don’t. Too many pork jobs at stake for the Democrats.

Meanwhile, the DCFS child protection division can’t figure out which kids really are at risk, judging by the Lethal Lapses series in the Belleville News Democrat.

The Illinois and Cook County child welfare system is a huge and exensive hoax on Illinois taxpayers and it doesn’t protect kids.

Comment by Anon Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 1:01 pm
The real question raised by the budget is “is he serious?”

Is Stroger proposing a budget with cuts to allegedly “vital” health clinics to draw outrage and convince people that the only way to go is to raise taxes, or is he serious and expects it to pass?

It seems odd that he is talking about cutting clinics but still hiring pals for $100,000+ county jobs, but he is a Stroger after all.

This will end with a tax raise. It is all for the cameras now: “I really TRIED to cut the budget, but we really can’t cut vital health care, can we?”

Comment by Skeeter Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 2:24 pm
Claypool is an embarrassment. He’s like Senator McCarthy with his list of “known communists” in the State Department. If Claypool knows of 3000 unnecessary employees in Cook County government, he should publish it. But he won’t — it’s just not true. There’s probably not more than 300 middle managers who are patronage hacks and most of them would have to be replaced. That would improve operations, but wouldn’t save much money. Forrest is all showboat.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 3:01 pm
They love him at the Baton!

Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 4:58 pm
FYI: I’m talking about Burt Natarus.

Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 4:59 pm
“Thereâ€™s probably not more than 300 middle managers who are patronage hacks and most of them would have to be replaced.”

Anon., you are either missing the point, or deliberately avoiding it. Facts are that Stroger’s (the elder) patronage people were pushing massive amounts of deadwood into the system all the time. The “deadwood” wasn’t pushed into the professional jobs where licenses or specialized qualifications were required (like RN’s, doctors, etc.), but anything else was fair game. And orders would be sent out from “Downtown” to all the other facilities HR departments, and if you were in authority to select & hire, you either bought in to the patronage hiring directives (regardless of how bad the stench was from the slime being pushed onto you), or NOBODY got approved to be hired. If you were all ready to hire 2 RN’s and a Pharmacy Assistant (after pulling teeth to get good candidates), you better buy into also hiring the 2 cases of “deadwood” being pushed by the patronage chiefs, otherwise you got NOTHING! The paperwork just sat there until you agreed.

You all wonder why there’s problems in the Cook County Health System. Imagine running a business where 20% (1 out of every 5) of your non-professional staff is “deadwood” by virtually any standards you can think of.

Comment by Judgement Day Is On The Way... Wednesday, Jan 17, 07 @ 9:24 pm
Broken Heart raises an interesting point.

Natarus has been in politics for how long?

And yet he decided that 2006 was the year to try and exempt cross-dressing dancers from the adult-use ordinance.

Is that really the sort of values that we want? Who in the 42nd would welcome any adult use business next door, and moveover, who that would object adult use on their block would say: “I usually oppose those places, but since the strippers are actually cross-dressers, its O.K.”

Maybe that can be Natarus’s new slogan:

“Vote Natarus and Put The Baton On Michigan Avenue”

Comment by Skeeter Thursday, Jan 18, 07 @ 9:17 am