Chicago Daily Observer

Tony Peraica proposed rolling back the Cook County sales tax in a July 22 meeting. The vote came to a roll-call and the Cook County board voted 10–7 to maintain the current sales tax, which is the highest sales tax in the United States.

The results are here:

Claypool (D-12th)
Quigley (D-10th)
Peraica (R-16th)
Gorman (R-17th)
Silvestri(R-9th)
Goslin, (R-14th)
Schneider (R-15th)

Collins, (D-1st)
Steele, (D-2nd)
Butler, (D-3rd)
Beavers, (D-4th)
Sims, (D-5th)
Murphy, (D-6th)
Moreno, (D-7th)
Maldonado, (D-8th)
Daley, (D-11th)
Suffredin, (D-13th)

The audit comes in response to a Chicago Sun-Times report on highway Supt. Rupert Graham’s order requiring road repair crews to observe “no-drive” days twice a month to save fuel.

The policy calls for road repairers, who make about $62,000 a year, to spend every other Wednesday doing odd jobs at district garages.

Opening a Thursday news conference, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger boasted that after just 18 months on the job, he had successfully fulfilled his three main campaign promises:

• Turning over control of the juvenile center to the chief judge;

• Giving the hospital system to an independent board;

• And creating an independent inspector general’s office.

Trouble is, Stroger didn’t make most of the promises.

Cook County voters could be forgiven for not remembering they’re supposed to elect a new top prosecutor this fall.

Since her solid win in the nasty, expensive Democratic primary for state’s attorney, career prosecutor Anita Alvarez has kept a pretty low public profile. That’s because she’s been playing it safe and smart, traveling the county to meet with party committeemen and raise money. After all, if she gets the Democratic organization behind her she’ll win handily, especially with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket.

I heard Tony Peraica’s presentation at the City Club of Chicago earlier this week. Inured to campaign speeches since I first started covering them in 1953, fifty-five years ago, I thought I’d load up on good Italian food and meet some old friends while Tony would recite a list of campaign truisms.

But what I heard was jaw-droppingly good. After years of watching this county shrug off misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance and incompetence with widespread waste of taxpayers’ money, for the first time in many years I heard one who knows the ins and outs of county government, is articulate, forthright and energetic. He is far better than the most recent Republicans to run for state’s attorney. Ben Adamowski was determined to get even with Richard J. Daley for a feud they had when both were in the legislature. In fact if there was any vote-fraud of consequence in the 1960 ... Read More...

For decades, the Cook County hospital system has been crippled by politics—doctors, administrators, funding and programs have long needed the approval of political overseers before becoming part of the structure.

But in a matter of weeks, the troubled health care operation will be taken over by a group of nine outsiders, described by many as independent and non-political.

Campaign finance records show that the 20 candidates to fill those nine slots have contributed more than $200,000 to various Illinois politicians in the last nine years. Of that, they’ve delivered more than $25,000 to Cook County officials—half donated to campaign committees supporting County Board President Todd Stroger and various members of the County Board.

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger appears to have enough votes to pass a series of tax increases today.

But it remains unclear whether he is willing to make the concessions needed to close the deal.

County budget deal ready if Stroger agrees

Commissioners and labor union leaders say Stroger will get the votes if he:

• • Scales back his plan to increase spending 7 percent and add 1,100 new employees to the payroll.

The returns from Florida last night caused me to contemplate the significance of the upcoming Illinois primary February 5. . Although there seem to be some spirited primary fights on the Democratic ballot, other than force of habit what would possess many conservative voters to request Republican ballots when they arrive at their precinct polling places? For many voters, the primary has been reduced to nothing more than a beauty contest.

In the race for the presidential nomination, Senator John McCain (R-Az) has seized the momentum and may be nearly unstoppable. Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney remain in the field, but they are trailing McCain. Both men may be campaigning for the silver medal, the vice president nomination at this point.

Unless you reside in an outlying suburban legislative district, there may not be a candidate for the Illinois ... Read More...

Larry Suffredin wants to be the next Cook County state’s attorney and says he’d fight corruption. But as a lobbyist, he’s been working for a man implicated in a mob bombing

Larry Suffredin—a self-styled reformer running for Cook County state’s attorney—lobbied for a landfill controlled by Fred Bruno Barbara, a businessman once charged with extortion and implicated in the mob bombing of a restaurant, the Sun-Times has learned.

The race for commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review is getting a little ridiculous, as each day seems to bring a new flyer from the candidates raising issues that bear no relevance to the office.

Over the weekend, for instance, I got a mailing from incumbent commissioner Joseph Berrios telling me that Berrios favors “clean air and water” and “better schools.”

That came on the heels of a mailing from Berrios calling for a property tax freeze.

Cook County’s hospitals and clinics would be turned over to a seven-member board of health professionals who would have taxing authority but whose budgets would still be ultimately approved by the Cook County board, under a proposal made public this week.

The term “ecumenical,” defined as “tending to support and encourage unity between the various types of the Christian religion,” has often been applied to governance. After all, government tends to work best when ecumenical principles at least season its processes.

Cook County Republican Party Chairman Elizabeth “Liz” Gorman appears more than willing to routinely accommodate Democrats. If only she would spare some of that ecumenical fervor for her own political party. It certainly could use more unity.

With the debacle in the Democratic controlled state house and Governor’s mansion, the exposure of gross mismanagement of the CTA and other agencies under Mayor Richard Daley, and Todd Stroger exhibiting a stunning amalgam of ineptness and arrogance as he shafts taxpayers for the benefit of his inner circle at the Cook County building, you’d think that county Republicans would see a chance to finally begin breaking the hammerlock Democrats have developed ... Read More...