Just minutes after Cook County Board President Todd Stroger boasted his $2.94 billion proposed budget for 2009 was free of additional taxes, several commissioners pounced on the plan Tuesday, describing it as fiscally irresponsible.
The budget, critics contend, cannot be balanced without borrowing $740 million through bond issues -- a tactic Stroger has been pushing for months.
"There's an economic crisis just short of the Depression, so for us to suggest that nothing's changed and it's OK to borrow our way through this problem is foolhardy," Commissioner Mike Quigley said.
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