Stroger Says He Will Consider Property Tax Hike
County Board President Had Promised During Elections He Would Not Raise Property Taxes
Dana KozlovReporting
(CBS) CHICAGO He promised he wouldn't do it, but Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is now on record as saying he might consider a property tax hike to balance the next budget.As CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov reports, that could affect millions of people and some commissioners are calling the suggestion outrageous."I think we're about to see a revolt,” said Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-13th).That's the path Suffredin fears residents are on, especially now that Stroger has hinted at a property tax hike."There's no confidence in this government today. And I don't know what he wants the money for,” Suffredin said.Stroger made the comments last weekend in response to questions about the county's fiscal health. Those comments have angered a group of commissioners, even some, like Suffredin, who once backed Stroger and now believe the president is trading county and taxpayer well-being for cronyism and political patronage."Absolutely outrageous when you consider all of the cost of living increases -- gas, natural gas, electric rate,” said Commissioner Tony Peraica (R-16th).In a statement, Stroger’s office would now only say "The 2008 budget process will begin in the fall and we will be discussing with the commissioners all options and how to best balance the budget at that time."But Peraica says the time to take action is now, and plans to call a no-confidence vote about Stroger at next week's board meeting. Commissioner and Stroger critic Forrest Claypool (D-12th) says such a vote is meaningless, but adds, “He is the president of the board and we have to deal with him, but we have a responsibility as commissioners to stand up to him."Not everyone disagrees with Stroger. Commissioner Robert Steele says the board should consider every revenue option next fall, and that includes a property tax hike.This talk comes as a property tax cap is about to expire in Springfield, which, combined with a possible county property tax increase, could mean a major hit for homeowners.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
He made a campaign promise not to raise property taxes...but Cook County Board President Todd Stroger may be changing his tune
Stroger Opens Door To Property Tax Increase
CHICAGO (STNG/WBBM) - He made a campaign promise not to raise property taxes...but Cook County Board President Todd Stroger may be changing his tune. Stroger made it clear over the weekend that he thinks a property tax hike is one way to balance the 2008 county budget. He tells Fox Chicago Sunday, "For years, we haven't taken any of the natural growth.... We should go to the next level that we can."WBBM's Debra Dale reports.Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool tells WBBM Stroger has a lot of nerve to ask taxpayers to bear a property tax increase now.
“I think he’s politically tone deaf or just arrogant, because he doesn’t get it. He’s laying off nurses and doctors and prosecutors rather than cut patronage. He’s showing his top priority is just protecting the political system,” Claypool said. Stroger made the comment in an interview that aired on “Fox Chicago Sunday.” In response to a question by hosts Dane Placko and Jack Conaty about how he planned to balance the budget, Stroger replied, “For years, we haven’t taken any of the natural growth [in property values]. We should go to the next level that we can.”
Commissioner Forrest Claypool, a frequent Stroger critic, said asking taxpayers to bear a property tax increase now, on the heels of several mini-scandals involving county officials, shows Stroger is “tone-deaf” and “arrogant.” “Todd Stroger needs to get his priorities straight, and he’s shown that his priority is protecting the bloated patronage system and the county system full of six-figure salaries for his friends and relatives and cronies,” Claypool said Monday. The 7 percent cap expiring “Now he’s saying, ‘I want to raise property taxes on people.’ . . . The president is certainly tone-deaf to be talking about raising property taxes,” Claypool said.Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica tells WBBM that Stroger's comments are an insult to voters and says he plans to call for a non-binding vote of "no confidence" in Stroger at the next county board meeting.
Stroger acknowledged problems with some county officials in the Fox interview, responding to a question about “incompetence” among some of the county hospital hires made under his father: “That may not be too strong a word. . . . In some instances you could say that.” Last year’s Cook County tax levy was $720.5 million, marking the eighth consecutive year at that level. Cook County residents, particularly in areas undergoing rapid increases in property values, already are bracing for a hit if the state Legislature fails to reinstate the 7 percent tax cap put in place three years ago.
That cap is set to expire this year. Marv Rubin, a resident of Norwood Park on the city’s Northwest Side, said he met with about 100 neighbors, many of them seniors, on Monday morning and encouraged them to contact their state legislators in the waning days of the session to urge them to support an extension of the cap.
Without the cap, some longtime residents will be forced out of their homes, Rubin said. As for Stroger’s suggestion that county property taxes might go up, Rubin said, “He’s doing everything backward as far as we’re concerned. The bottom line is he can find jobs for all his friends and he’s telling us he needs money. It’s ridiculous.”
Copyright 2007 STNG Wire, The Chicago Sun-Times. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CHICAGO (STNG/WBBM) - He made a campaign promise not to raise property taxes...but Cook County Board President Todd Stroger may be changing his tune. Stroger made it clear over the weekend that he thinks a property tax hike is one way to balance the 2008 county budget. He tells Fox Chicago Sunday, "For years, we haven't taken any of the natural growth.... We should go to the next level that we can."WBBM's Debra Dale reports.Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool tells WBBM Stroger has a lot of nerve to ask taxpayers to bear a property tax increase now.
“I think he’s politically tone deaf or just arrogant, because he doesn’t get it. He’s laying off nurses and doctors and prosecutors rather than cut patronage. He’s showing his top priority is just protecting the political system,” Claypool said. Stroger made the comment in an interview that aired on “Fox Chicago Sunday.” In response to a question by hosts Dane Placko and Jack Conaty about how he planned to balance the budget, Stroger replied, “For years, we haven’t taken any of the natural growth [in property values]. We should go to the next level that we can.”
Commissioner Forrest Claypool, a frequent Stroger critic, said asking taxpayers to bear a property tax increase now, on the heels of several mini-scandals involving county officials, shows Stroger is “tone-deaf” and “arrogant.” “Todd Stroger needs to get his priorities straight, and he’s shown that his priority is protecting the bloated patronage system and the county system full of six-figure salaries for his friends and relatives and cronies,” Claypool said Monday. The 7 percent cap expiring “Now he’s saying, ‘I want to raise property taxes on people.’ . . . The president is certainly tone-deaf to be talking about raising property taxes,” Claypool said.Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica tells WBBM that Stroger's comments are an insult to voters and says he plans to call for a non-binding vote of "no confidence" in Stroger at the next county board meeting.
Stroger acknowledged problems with some county officials in the Fox interview, responding to a question about “incompetence” among some of the county hospital hires made under his father: “That may not be too strong a word. . . . In some instances you could say that.” Last year’s Cook County tax levy was $720.5 million, marking the eighth consecutive year at that level. Cook County residents, particularly in areas undergoing rapid increases in property values, already are bracing for a hit if the state Legislature fails to reinstate the 7 percent tax cap put in place three years ago.
That cap is set to expire this year. Marv Rubin, a resident of Norwood Park on the city’s Northwest Side, said he met with about 100 neighbors, many of them seniors, on Monday morning and encouraged them to contact their state legislators in the waning days of the session to urge them to support an extension of the cap.
Without the cap, some longtime residents will be forced out of their homes, Rubin said. As for Stroger’s suggestion that county property taxes might go up, Rubin said, “He’s doing everything backward as far as we’re concerned. The bottom line is he can find jobs for all his friends and he’s telling us he needs money. It’s ridiculous.”
Copyright 2007 STNG Wire, The Chicago Sun-Times. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
What does Todd think is his biggest challenge? BAD PRESS
Deteriorating services, twisted priorities are Stroger's problems
May 25, 2007
The issue: Just as county hospital suffers a substandard rating, county board president claims bad press is Cook County government's biggest problem.
We say: Stroger's backward priorities and the declining level of county services are his big problems -- not news stories detailing the mismanagement.
The timing couldn't have been more telling.
Earlier this week, news organizations in Chicago reported that Cook County's Stroger Hospital was in danger of losing its accreditation. Such a loss would threaten more than $200 million in federal money.
The same day, county board President Todd Stroger told a civic group what he considers to be the county's biggest problem.
Bad press.
"The biggest challenge probably has been working through the bad press," Stroger said Monday at the annual meeting of the Cook County League of Women voters.
News stories, meanwhile, revealed that a surprise inspection of the county hospital had turned up 22 areas in which the hospital failed to meet standards. County officials say they have persuaded the nonprofit agency that evaluates hospitals -- now known as the Joint Commission -- to reduce the "areas of noncompliance" to 16. Fourteen substandard ratings from the internationally recognized health care evaluator would be enough to trigger conditional accreditation, putting funding at risk. The county will have until June 28 to correct the problems and safeguard its accreditation.
You might think the negative ratings and possible funding cuts to the troubled county health care system would be Stroger's biggest concern. After all, he has said repeatedly that health care is the county's "core mission." But he dismissed the ratings as overly technical and accused "union leaders" of being at the source of the findings. So while the hospital received its worst rating in more than two decades, according to one published report, the problem according to Stroger wasn't in the quality of services performed at the hospital. It was the fact that someone pointed it out -- which is pretty much the same argument he's making about the news media.
Meanwhile, Stroger hired two new assistants this week, including a $108,000-a-year attorney whose job will include sitting beside Stroger at county board meetings to help him answer questions. He'll be paid out of the public defender budget -- the office that supposedly provides legal representation for poor people. The other new hire is Sean Howard, a well-known spokesman for local politicians, who was forced to resign from the Stroger campaign last year when he was arrested on charges, later dropped, that he stalked a now-former girlfriend. Howard will be paid $85,000 to be director of public affairs for the county hospitals, working with the chief of the health bureau on "broad policy issues."
Maybe Stroger sees some logic in all of this. If "bad press" is your biggest problem, hiring a platoon of PR people might make sense. But to anyone else -- in particular to Cook County taxpayers -- the most important issue is whether the county is providing efficient services at a minimum cost. And to anyone else, it would be irresponsible and inappropriate for Stroger to keep expanding the public relations staff at the same time he's getting rid of doctors and nurses in the health care system.
This is yet another example of Stroger thumbing his nose at the public and at the concept of responsible government. Once again, he's criticizing the press for telling the truth about his unnecessary hirings of cronies and relatives at the same time he is slashing health care services the county's neediest residents depend on.
Stroger's priorities are out of whack, and anyone grounded in reality understands that laying the blame on reporters for his problems is a fantasy.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
May 24th - Stunning! $108,000 for his own attorney!
May 24th -
Paid to defend poor but doing Stroger's bidding
COUNTY 'It's totally inappropriate': commissioner
May 24, 2007
BY STEVE PATTERSON AND ERIC HERMAN Staff Reporters On paper, he works for the Cook County agency that represents those too poor to hire a lawyer.
But in reality, attorney Richard Velazquez is being paid to give legal advice to County Board President Todd Stroger.
The move has stunned county commissioners and some in the public defender's office, but Stroger said Wednesday there's nothing wrong with his decision to hire Velazquez on the public defender's budget -- only to use him as his own attorney.
'Not good government'"It's totally inappropriate," countered Commissioner Mike Quigley. "It makes the budget an illusion, and it's not good government."
Velazquez, who has had his law license since 2003, is being paid $108,000 a year. He is the poorly prepared staffer Stroger sent to the media last week to defend financial moves Stroger has made since the board approved a $3 billion budget.
Others have been laid offStroger has since struggled to answer allegations that more than $20 million has been spent on items other than what the board intended.
Asked about Velazquez's position, new Stroger spokeswoman Ibis Antongiorgi said he was hired to assist Stroger, and there were never any plans to put him in a courtroom.
The position is one of hundreds filled at Stroger's discretion, and Antongiorgi said "it's not unusual" for people in those types of jobs to be working on multiple tasks.
Public Defender Ed Burnette, who serves at Stroger's pleasure, said he can't explain why Velazquez is on his budget. "I know he's not working within the parameters of our office," Burnette said.
Velazquez, who did not return calls, is filling in for Stroger's $123,000-a-year legal adviser, Laura Lechowicz-Felicione, who's splitting her time at the county hospital.
Velazquez's salary is being paid by an office where 13 lawyers were recently laid off and 65 to 70 employees are being forced to take unpaid days off, all because of budget cuts.
"They're very short-staffed and extremely overburdened," said Roberta Lynch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents public defenders. "We think it's very inappropriate to be spending money from that office, that's supposed to be defending the indigent, for some other purpose."
Paid to defend poor but doing Stroger's bidding
COUNTY 'It's totally inappropriate': commissioner
May 24, 2007
BY STEVE PATTERSON AND ERIC HERMAN Staff Reporters On paper, he works for the Cook County agency that represents those too poor to hire a lawyer.
But in reality, attorney Richard Velazquez is being paid to give legal advice to County Board President Todd Stroger.
The move has stunned county commissioners and some in the public defender's office, but Stroger said Wednesday there's nothing wrong with his decision to hire Velazquez on the public defender's budget -- only to use him as his own attorney.
'Not good government'"It's totally inappropriate," countered Commissioner Mike Quigley. "It makes the budget an illusion, and it's not good government."
Velazquez, who has had his law license since 2003, is being paid $108,000 a year. He is the poorly prepared staffer Stroger sent to the media last week to defend financial moves Stroger has made since the board approved a $3 billion budget.
Others have been laid offStroger has since struggled to answer allegations that more than $20 million has been spent on items other than what the board intended.
Asked about Velazquez's position, new Stroger spokeswoman Ibis Antongiorgi said he was hired to assist Stroger, and there were never any plans to put him in a courtroom.
The position is one of hundreds filled at Stroger's discretion, and Antongiorgi said "it's not unusual" for people in those types of jobs to be working on multiple tasks.
Public Defender Ed Burnette, who serves at Stroger's pleasure, said he can't explain why Velazquez is on his budget. "I know he's not working within the parameters of our office," Burnette said.
Velazquez, who did not return calls, is filling in for Stroger's $123,000-a-year legal adviser, Laura Lechowicz-Felicione, who's splitting her time at the county hospital.
Velazquez's salary is being paid by an office where 13 lawyers were recently laid off and 65 to 70 employees are being forced to take unpaid days off, all because of budget cuts.
"They're very short-staffed and extremely overburdened," said Roberta Lynch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents public defenders. "We think it's very inappropriate to be spending money from that office, that's supposed to be defending the indigent, for some other purpose."
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Stroger Gives Campaign Worker $85,000 job
May 23rd - 2007. Sun-Times Page 24 -
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has another high-level adviser: Sean Howard, who just months ago resigned in embarrassment from the Stroger campaign because he'd been arrested for allegedly stalking a girlfriend.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has another high-level adviser: Sean Howard, who just months ago resigned in embarrassment from the Stroger campaign because he'd been arrested for allegedly stalking a girlfriend.
Howard, 39, is the new director of public affairs for the county hospital system. He's the longtime spokesman for Bishop Larry Trotter, a spiritual adviser to the Stroger family who has been a vocal political supporter of Stroger.
Howard, of Crete -- who will make $85,000 a year -- has resigned as spokesman for the village of Dolton and the Shaw political family.
His hiring comes as clinics are being closed and medical staff being laid off due to budget cuts.
At what point will Todd Stroger invest in the frontline workers who make the system run?" asked Sheilah Garland-Olaniran of the National Nurses Organizing Committee. "Has he looked at what the mission of the county hospital says? Who are we supposed to serve?"But county spokesman Andre Garner said Howard is filling an existing job and will "be working on broad policy issues" with hospital chief Robert Simon.
Stroger insisted last year that Howard would have no role with his campaign after his arrest.
Charges were dropped after the victim, a county correctional officer, refused to pursue charges.
Howard was also named in a recent lawsuit, filed by a developer, who says he was pressured to hire Howard at $150,000 a year if he wanted to do business in Dolton.
Howard did not return calls for comment.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
May 3rd 2007 - 'Stroger's Friends & Family"
Chicago Tribune -
Time and again Wednesday, commissioners voiced admiration, or at least acceptance, for each nominee. Time and again, though, some commissioners then quickly alluded to Todd Stroger's selection of people close to him for jobs that should have prompted nationwide searches for the strongest, most experienced candidates:
- The board approved Mark Kilgallon as the county's chief administrative officer after he assured board members that he isn't a target in a federal probe of hiring during his time as John Stroger's chief of human resources. After an 11-5 vote in Kilgallon's favor, board member Larry Suffredin reminded him that his job now is to streamline and consolidate a government that voters hold in "the lowest level of esteem."
- Carmen Triche-Colvin, widely respected for her work as Cook County Forest Preserve District purchasing agent, will assume that role for the much larger county government. She's married to one of Todd Stroger's childhood friends, state Rep. Marlow Colvin (D-Chicago).
- Joseph Fratto, who has a long background in public finance, becomes county comptroller. He once hired Stroger for a job at the Chicago Park District.
- Donna Dunnings, Stroger's cousin, is the county's new chief financial officer. She has a strong educational background and had been county budget director.
Time and again Wednesday, commissioners voiced admiration, or at least acceptance, for each nominee. Time and again, though, some commissioners then quickly alluded to Todd Stroger's selection of people close to him for jobs that should have prompted nationwide searches for the strongest, most experienced candidates:
- The board approved Mark Kilgallon as the county's chief administrative officer after he assured board members that he isn't a target in a federal probe of hiring during his time as John Stroger's chief of human resources. After an 11-5 vote in Kilgallon's favor, board member Larry Suffredin reminded him that his job now is to streamline and consolidate a government that voters hold in "the lowest level of esteem."
- Carmen Triche-Colvin, widely respected for her work as Cook County Forest Preserve District purchasing agent, will assume that role for the much larger county government. She's married to one of Todd Stroger's childhood friends, state Rep. Marlow Colvin (D-Chicago).
- Joseph Fratto, who has a long background in public finance, becomes county comptroller. He once hired Stroger for a job at the Chicago Park District.
- Donna Dunnings, Stroger's cousin, is the county's new chief financial officer. She has a strong educational background and had been county budget director.
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