More County Health Scare Tactics
by Tony Peraica
Cook County families and employers are hurting. We have record bankruptcies and foreclosures, and our unemployment rate continues to rise.
That is why a majority of us on the Cook County Board have pushed for a rollback of the onerous sales tax hike passed last year. I was the first to introduce such a rollback — and have strongly advocated for a full repeal of this tax hike.
President Todd Stroger has, as we know, vetoed our tax rollback ordinances each and every time we have passed them. He continues to use scare tactics to defend his unpopular position. Specifically, he threatens (wrongly) that health clinics and hospitals will be shuttered and taxpayers in Cook County will lose their health care.
Yet, as the Chicago Tribune reports today, the new county health budget relies on significantly less tax dollars:
Peraica noted that the new health budget relies on 19 percent less in county taxes and said that shows Stroger isn’t shooting straight when he says rolling back the county sales tax would decimate the public health system.The budget “does in fact fund all hospitals and all clinics without closing any of them, and I think that the public needs to know the truth, that that was really not part of the agenda at any time, and this board is committed to keeping the hospitals and clinics open, as they are operating, but to do that more efficiently,” Peraica said.
The fact is, we have approved a preliminary budget for the Cook County Board of Health in the amount of $850 million for FY2010 that provides funding for all existing hospitals and clinics. The sales tax hike is not necessary to fund operations of the health system.
If this Administration is so concerned about directing scarce dollars to the health system, perhaps they should do something about the patronage that wastes this money. After all, today’s Chicago Sun-Times reports on a new report by court-appointed federal patronage monitor Mary Robinson that finds patronage to still be a problem in county government:
Politically-connected job candidates — with little experience or credentials — pushed through the interview process for Cook County jobs. Concerns about whether test answers were leaked to applicants ahead of time after candidates for entry-level mechanical jobs were able to recite complicated answers to highly technical interview questions. And job candidates with rap sheets — but with clout — held to less rigorous standards than a regular Joe with a criminal record.
Bottom line: we absolutely have sufficient funds for the operation of the county health system — with or without the sales tax increase.
And we’d have more than enough money to provide actual tax relief to the taxpayers if this administration eliminated the waste, fraud and abuse that costs us untold millions each year.
Have your say!