CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle today presented the board with a proposed $8.75-billion budget fueled in part by federal recovery funds.
President Toni Preckwinkle answered the most common budget question people have.
"No new tax increases. We haven't increased taxes in seven years," she said when asked about property taxes.
But, there are new and continuing initiatives. In a briefing for reporters, County Budget Director Annette Guzman showed a long and partial list of programs funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, for example.
“We are budgeting around $270 million in FY-23 (2023 fiscal year) to continue to implement the programs that begun this year,” Guzman said.
“Across the board, I think we’re trying to make the best possible use of the additional federal resources that we’ve secured through the American Rescue Plan Act,” Preckwinkle added.
Preckeinkle said she wanted the budget to be transformative.
County Budget forecaster Dean Constantinou said the County’s seen sales tax revenues far outpace expectations, but they’re not going to wildly spend the money.
“We anticipated this possibility, having learned from the lessons of the Great Recession, developed a financial policy that would prevent us from repeating the mistakes so many governments have made in the past,” Constaninou said.
There are some concerns though. The County has not been able to hire as many people as desired. Preckwinkle said it's a national problem. Right now there are about 4,000 vacancies.
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