“This ordinance is meant to protect the Cook County taxpayers, plain and simple,” said Peraica. “Over the past several months, we have seen President Stroger take advantage of arcane county board rules to block tax relief ordinances that are supported by the majority of the commissioners. My ordinance would make it more difficult for the politicians to pay for their mismanagement of government on the backs of the county taxpayers.”

Peraica will introduce his ordinance at tomorrow’s Cook County Board meeting. The full ordinance, as introduced, is below:

Following is Commissioner Peraica’s proposed ordinance:

Submitting a Proposed Ordinance Amendment sponsored by

TONY PERAICA, County Commissioner

PROPOSED ORDINANCE AMENDMENT

AN ORDINANCE REQUIRING A TWO-THIRDS (2/3) SUPERMAJORITY FOR NEW TAXES AND TAX INCREASES

WHEREAS, The County of Cook is a Home Rule unit and may, under the power granted by Section 6(a) of Article VII of the 1970 Constitution of the State of Illinois, exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs, including, but not limited to, the power to tax and to incur debt; and

WHEREAS, the decision to impose new or raise existing taxes should be subject to the utmost scrutiny, and be approved by more than a simple majority of Cook County Commissioners.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED, by the Cook County Board of Commissioners that Chapter 2 Administration, Section 2-108 of the Cook County Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 2-108. Parliamentary rules.

(e) Majority v Votes.

Except as otherwise provided in these rules, and except for questions for which a higher majority is required by law, all questions shall be determined by a majority vote of those Commissioners entitled to vote. A vote of “present” shall not be counted in determining the number of Commissioners voting on a question. Any question involving the imposition of any new taxes or increases in existing taxes shall require a supermajority vote of two-thirds (2/3), or 12 Commissioners, of the Cook County Board in order to gain passage.

Patronage workers with the Cook County Forest Preserve District are seeing more green these days — in their paychecks.

With people everywhere facing tough financial times, the 28 forest preserve patronage workers who’ve been on the payroll since 2006 all got hefty raises in the following two years, an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association has found. They’re among 38 forest preserve workers who are exempt from the Shakman court order that bans political hiring in city and county government.

Shakeman-exempt employees of the Cook County Forest Preserve District who have contributed funds to Stroger campaigns have seen their salaries grow, including Steve Bylina, whose salary is 4168,511, Richard Waszak, who earns $105,165 and Frank Damato, whose salary is $100,657.

On average, the exempt employees were paid $98,071 last year. Nine of them saw their salaries increase 19 percent or more between 2006 and 2008.

“We’ve been trying all day to line up the 14 votes for a special meeting, but everybody’s traveling,” Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica said Friday. “We may have to wait until Sept. 1. I think we’re going to get 14 votes. I think he is engaging in a futile act.’’

He added: “I am extremely disappointed, and I think he is making a colossal mistake, which hopefully the taxpayers of Cook County will remember in 2010.”

Please watch the following video excerpt below:

“Transparency has been my guiding principle since being elected as commissioner in 2002,” said Peraica. “Taxpayers have the right to know how their tax dollars are being spent – and deserve a government that operates in the sunlight, rather than the shadows.”

An initiative of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, “Sunshine Week” is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information.

In addition to the online check register resolution passed last month, Peraica noted his efforts over the past several years to put county employee salaries and vendor contract online at www.CookEmployees.com.

Peraica also has introduced a pending resolution for the County Board to form a private sector, bi-partisan “Waste Commission” to identify waste, abuse and cost saving opportunities in the county budget.

Several Chicago news organizations also have highlighted Peraica’s use of Twitter to “live tweet” county board meetings to provide real-time updates to taxpayers on the deliberations of the elected county commissioners.

“It’s time for a new era of open government in Cook County, in which we shine the light on no-bid contracts and pork-barrel boondoggles for political insiders,” said Peraica. “We ask our taxpayers to pay the highest sales tax in the country and foot the bill for a bloated, wasteful budget. They deserve nothing less than a government that is open, honest and transparenty.”

Click here to view Peraica’s signed Transparency Pledge.

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Cook County commissioners’ decision last week to modestly trim the county’s proposed budget earned them applause in some quarters, but critics caution the county may not be out of the woods yet.

Commissioners lopped $46 million from the $2.9 billion spending plan. Republicans – including Elizabeth Doody Gorman, of Orland Park, and Tony Peraica, of Riverside – tried to cut more. But the only taker among Democrats was John Daley, of Chicago, whose district includes the Oak Lawn area.

Together with higher revenue estimates, based in part on money expected from the federal stimulus package, the reductions will allow the county to avoid issuing bonds to cover hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance and lawsuit costs. Critics said the bond plan, endorsed by county board President Todd Stroger (D-Chicago), amounted to borrowing to pay for operating expenses.

Commissioners also slashed Stroger’s controversial request to borrow $360 million for capital projects. A final decision on whether to proceed with a bond issue for those projects still must be made, and some believe more spending could be eliminated.

Also still to be decided is how to pay for $104 million in pension obligations. Stroger wanted to borrow the full amount. But that looks unlikely now.

Stroger spokeswoman Chris Geovanis said several options are on the table, including borrowing about $25 million and spreading payment of the remaining pension debt over a number of years.

Meanwhile, there’s the question of whether sharp declines in tax revenue owing to the economic downturn could force further belt-tightening before the year is done.

Without ruling that possibility out, Geovanis said it’s “not something we are anticipating.” Stroger’s finance department believes its revenue estimates are sufficiently conservative, she said.

That the county isn’t contemplating deeper cuts, at a time when the state faces a massive budget deficit, can be attributed to the “unpopular but politically courageous” sales tax increase Cook County implemented last year, according to Geovanis.

“We’re actually in better shape than other government agencies,” she said.

Nevertheless, Civic Federation president Laurence Msall said he’s concerned the cuts may not have gone deep enough. He said figures that Daley requested from the county show that, on average, 1 in 10 county employees are absent every day, indicating there’s plenty of room to slash payroll without affecting services.

“We have not hit the bottom” of the recession, Msall said. “It would be naive for the county to expect that its revenue projections will not be affected.”

Gorman said capital spending could be further reduced. Geovanis disputed that notion, saying commissioners already had “stripped out everything but absolutely critical capital projects.”

Whether there’s more fat to trim or not, Gorman said many of her constituents believe the county budget is bloated.

“People see the inefficiencies of Cook County,” she said. “People feel there’s more cuts to be made.”

Peraica said the biggest problem with the budget is the revenue projections.

“I felt extremely uncomfortable using these pie-in-the-sky numbers,” he said. “We’re going to end up even more short, and when we get to mid-year, if that far, we’re going to be forced, I believe, to cut.”

Commissioners agreed to a 2 percent reduction in the health budget and a 4 percent cut in other departments at a meeting last Tuesday of the finance committee, which includes all board members. But they must meet again Wednesday, as the full board, for a final vote and to decide remaining matters.

Peraica, Gorman and the board’s three other Republicans plus Daley tried and failed to cut 6 percent from all departments before the smaller reductions passed.

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica attended Brookfield’s Village Board meeting Monday, Jan. 26, to give a state of the county presentation.

In a front of a standing room only audience, Peraica broke down where the county’s dollars come from. He said one-third comes from real estate tax, one-third comes from fees for services provided and another one-third comes from sales tax.

Peraica’s discussion also stirred the room when stating Cook County had the highest sales tax in the country at 10.25 percent. About 50,000 foreclosure cases were handled in 2008 and about the same number is expected in 2009, he said. The foreclosure problem might even extend to 2011, Peraica said.

About $3 billion dollars is collected for the county budget, according to Peraica. The majority of the money is spent on health care, public safety and administrative funcitons, Peraica said.

Peraica ended his presentation with his goal for managing government more efficiently by encouraging a balanced budget and living within the county’s means.