Tax Relief? Repeal the Entire Stroger Sales Tax Hike
The Chicago Tribune reports about how some on the county board are trumpeting the “tax relief” provided when they (spurred by Commissioner Peraica) shaved half a percentage point off the massive sales tax increase pushed by Todd Stroger in 2008.
Calling that minute, half-percentage point reduction “tax relief” is an insult to the taxpayers of Cook County — who deserve nothign less than a full repeal of the Stroger tax hike.
Commissioner Peraica is quoted in the Tribune:
“In my mind, it was just a partial rollback of an ill-advised tax increase,” said Commissioner Tony Peraica, R-Riverside, who voted against the original increase. “I wanted the whole increase rolled back.”
Todd’s $6.7 Million ‘Human Error’
It’s not that Todd doesn’t know the rules. Apparently he just doesn’t care about them.
Why else — after being reprimanded by both the Chicago media and the County Board — would he go ahead and approve yet another questionable taxpayer-funded contract to a crony?
The Daily Herald reports:
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s administration acknowledged Wednesday that 25 checks worth more than $6.7 million were paid out before receiving the required board approval.
Stroger attributed the “mistake” to “human error,” calling it “more of an issue of you pressed a button when you shouldn’t have done it.” He asked for tolerance, saying, “This is not time to pull someone over the rails.”
Yet, Riverside Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica said some of the checks were as large as $700,000 and pointed to it as a dramatic escalation of the so-called 24-9 contracts - payments just under the $25,000 figure requiring board approval - that Stroger handed out as a lame duck after losing in the Democratic Primary earlier this year. “The ship is not being steered,” Peraica said. “The management is not managing.”
$6.7 million worth of “human error.” Commissioner Peraica is right that the ship isn’t being steered. In fact, it hit the iceberg a long time ago.
And county taxpayers are left treading water.
Cook County ‘Jobs’ Program Lost $2.7 Million
ABC 7 Chicago reports:
State documents show that Cook County lost $2.7 million meant to teach job skills to hundreds of suburban residents because it didn’t spend the federal money.
The cash was lost at a time when more than one out of 10 Chicago-area workers are unemployed.
Because of the problems, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is moving to take over the program until Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s term ends in December.
The good news is that action is being taken to hold this program accountable. The bad news is that the new watchdog will be the State of Illinois.
Todd’s Missing Campaign Cash
Fox Chicago News is reporting that Todd Stroger’s campaign is “missing” $43,000 from the campaign bank account:
But something tells us Todd (or someone in the campaign) knows exactly where that cash went.
On primary election day, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger cashed two big campaign checks to provide money for getting out the vote. Now the campaign can’t explain exactly where the cash went.
Stroger himself went to Seaway Bank that morning and cashed checks for $18,000 and $25,000. The checks were made out to Stroger. Campaign officials tell us the $43,000 in cash was given to campaign workers as “walking around money” — petty cash used to pay campaign workers.
Walking around money?
Sounds little bit fishy to us. And, as Fox Chicago News reports, the way this money was handled violates campaign finance laws.
As Commissioner Peraica is quoted in the story:
“There’s a pattern of misreporting, false inaccurate incomplete information, that is done either intentionally or gross (negligence) by his finance campaign director,” said Peraica.
Is it just us, or has this been the longest, most troubled “lame duck” period for any politician in history?
Todd, we can’t wait to see you retire.
Oops, They Did it Again: Stroger Crony Gets County Contract
by Tony Peraica
Well, more of your hard-earned tax dollars are going to foot the bill for yet another Stroger crony.
This time, it’s a former Stroger campaign staffer, Ray Harris, who was hired to help the county with collective bargaining agreements (by the way, he’s a former official with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union — just whose side will be he be representing in future county labor negotiations?)
He was supposed to be hired to a one-year, $60,000 contract — but the uproar raised by me and some other reformers forced Stroger to only ask for a one-time $15,000 contract.
Unfortunately, the Cook County Board today voted to approve this crony contract. Commissioner Tim Schneider and I were the only county commissioners to vote “NO” on this contract.
The Sun-Times quoted me following today’s vote:
“This is yet another appointment of a former political worker to the county payroll,” Peraica said. “I think it’s inappropriate. I think it’s something that shouldn’t be allowed or condoned.”
Please click here to watch the video we posted previously in which I discusses this crony contract in more detail.
After November, we’ll be watching closely to see if the newly-elected County Board President decides to continue Harris’ contract — or rightfully cut him from the county payroll.
VIDEO: County Board Update
In Case You Missed It: Tribune Whacks Endorsers of Stroger, Berrios
Filed under: Blagojevich, Budget, Corruption, Elections, Mayor Daley, Reform, Taxes, Todd Stroger
We meant to post this earlier today, because it’s just a wonderful editorial by the Chicago Tribune.
Not only does the Tribune take a nice whack at all those Democrat politicians who endorsed Todd Stroger for County Board President in 2006 — they whack many of those same politicians for endorsing Cook County Board of Review Commissioner/Cook Democratic Party Chair Joe Berrios in 2010:
The list of pols who endorsed Stroger survives online, and for that we’re supremely grateful. His endorsers remain stakeholders in his broken promises, his patronage-larded budgets, and his notorious Friends and Family Hiring Plan.
Much as they might wish voters would forget their Stroger legacy, he’s all theirs:
Mayor Richard M. Daley is on the list, as are Durbin and now-President Obama. So are U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush, Jesse Jackson Jr., Dan Lipinski, Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky and current White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Five statewide officeholders — Rod Blagojevich, Pat Quinn, Lisa Madigan, Dan Hynes and Jesse White — also urged the rest of us to elect Todd Stroger.
And here’s the piece about Berrios:
What’s especially galling is that many of those who endorsed Stroger now have endorsed his crony Joe Berrios, a lobbyist, member of the county tax appeal board and candidate for the influential office of county assessor. When not in Springfield lobbying Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (a Stroger endorser) and Senate President John Cullerton (a Berrios endorser), Berrios passes judgment on … tax appeals for clients of Madigan’s and Cullerton’s law firms. That conflict is grotesque.
Good for the Chicago Tribune.
We’re somewhat surprised they didn’t mention the fact that their competitor, the Sun-Times, also endorsed Todd in 2006.
VIDEO: Duck-and-Dodge with Joe Berrios
This weekend’s Fox Chicago Sunday appearance by Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Joe Berrios was very telling.
Watch as Berrios — also the Cook County Democratic Party Chair — pooh-pooh’s questions about him being too cozy with insiders such as State Democratic Chair Mike Madigan who, by the way, is a tax appeals attorney whose law firm brings cases before Berrios.
Is Berrios employing the old “Rostenkowski Defense” (everybody’s doing it, so I should, too)?
Sunlight Disinfects: Stroger Axes Appointment of Crony
Last week, we put a spotlight on Todd Stroger’s plans to appoint a crony to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
It appears our efforts have worked, as Todd has decided to succumb to the pressure and “pull” his planned appointment.
A small, yet important, victory for the Cook County taxpayers.
Keep the Roaches Scurrying
If you’ve ever had a roach problem, you know that turning the light on causes the roaches to scurry and seemingly disappear.
Turn off the lights, however, and the roaches reappear.
So it is with the corrupt and inept in Cook County. Shining a spotlight on them sometimes has a short, temporary effect (either through firings or jail time), but as soon as the spotlight is turned off, the roaches reappear….
This morning’s Sun-Times provides a great example of why we need to keep the spotlight on Cook County corruption. And it’s a prime example of why we need to keep Tony Peraica serving on the Cook County board:
The Cook County Highway Department was poised to hire six new truck drivers in recent months — without giving applicants a behind-the-wheel driving test.
When county hiring monitors raised a red flag and began to investigate, one official said, they found three of the six finalists for the snow plow jobs hadn’t provided a driving record as required.
That’s despite letters of support for each candidate — authored by highway department bosses — noting that each applicant had a “good driving record,” said Mary Robinson, the Shakman compliance administrator charged with ensuring the county adheres to a federal court-ordered ban on political hiring.
After Robinson met with county officials, the hirings were nixed.
“It appeared some of the [job] candidates had political sponsors,” Robinson told the Sun-Times.
That’s one of several examples Robinson will provide in a report this week to a federal judge overseeing the Shakman consent decree. Robinson said some progress has been made, including ongoing work on an automated job application system.
But some county employees see the Shakman decree as a hurdle, not a court order.
“There are many people in the county who still feel all they have to do is get it past us, as opposed to changing how they do the hiring.”
Imagine that: the county insiders view the law as a hurdle to be crossed, rather than a rule to be followed.
We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’ll keep on fighting and making a difference.
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