Cook County Budget Deficit: New Site Asks Residents How They Would Fix Budget Shortfall

How would you fix Cook County’s $315 million budget shortfall? An interactive “Budget” section launched Tuesday on the Cook County government website lets residents take the county’s $3.1 billion budget into their own hands by adjusting current revenue and expenditure allocations to tweak the deficit total.

For example, by sliding the “government funding” bar down to half its current size and tripling the sales tax, the budget would be fixed! With the “Tell Toni” page, one can submit those suggestions to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who will review them before the preliminary budget hearing August 25.

The county’s crowdsourcing budget page is a more elegant echo of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s site for calling for solutions to the city’s deficit, launched in late July. Its cartoonish pages were quickly flooded with suggestions ranging from landscaping cutbacks to making Chicago sports teams fund their own CPD security details.

The county’s budget page provides a comprehensive profile of 15-year financial trends, including rising personnel costs, shortfalls in health patient billing and cutbacks in revenue-generating tax programs. Its launch comes on the heels of Preckwinkle’s announcement that, for the first time in the county’s history, budget-to-actual spending numbers will be published on a quarterly basis to track progress and maintain accountability. The site is intended to encourage residents to engage with this new flood of data.

What do you think? Tell us--and Toni--about your tweaks in the comments.

Comments

[JustinWGaines]

05:07 PM on 08/10/2011

I really like the articles that link to useful stuff! It is awesome that the huffpost is now becoming more tech savvy! I am stoked to see where this is going!
As for the taxes:
I eliminated sales and property taxes, doubled the cost of home rule and fine/fees, and it balanced pretty nicely somehow.

[Notahuffan]

09:11 AM on 08/10/2011

You'll never fix the problem, Chicago politicians are too corrupt to let it happen. They won't let you cut off the source of their ill-gotten gains.

[dsa1115]

10:22 PM on 08/09/2011

Toni is doing a great job so far. Unfortunately Todd Stroger, and before him Todd Stroger's father dug a very very deep financial hole.

[Escalonz]

08:28 PM on 08/09/2011

Chicago/Cook county has been owned by the Democratic party for decades upon decades via the Daily political machine which is awesome in it's own right. Therein lies the problem and it matters not what happens as the Democratic control is lock solid. This one party rule is no different than a dictatorship but you can't help admire it for it's incredible success and it's ability to develop voters with a religious loyalty second to none. The liberal press is it's patron saint and deserves equal admiration as it continues to own the minds of the hapless voters who aren't even aware of it. Nevertheless it will be interesting to see how this magnificent political machine solves this monster financial problem but I'd put my money on it any day to come out smelling like roses.

[edgewater]

06:31 PM on 08/09/2011

I was so excited when I first found out that Preckwinkle was running, but she is more of the same old song abd dance. She has hired friends that have been fired from city governement to the tune of close to 70 k as administrative assistants while asking for other departments to cut staff. If the county is looking to fix a budget shortfall one might start by asking why she is personally employing staff instead of shuffling postions. Instead, we as taxpayers are now on the hook for additional benefits etc. My opinion is that She is pointing the finger for others to do things but not carrying the load herself!

[roboman]

04:22 PM on 08/09/2011

What good is this? It is an fake attempt at transparent government meanwhile these folks will go on doing what they've always done. The survey itself is completely rigged to get favor revenues or spending cuts. In fact, why not provide the entire budget so people who are really interested could go through it line item by line item and see just where we're spending that half a billion in pensions and benefits that are untouchable. Half a billion on a $3 billion budget!!! Recipe for failure because that benefits number will keep rising and rising and the county will have to keep cutting into essential services to meet it.

[mosttruthful]

03:16 PM on 08/09/2011

Tax the rich. Oh, I forgot they all left town.

[editboy]

03:05 PM on 08/09/2011

So now even local politicians are afraid to make tough decisions...

[Sock No 4]

02:17 PM on 08/09/2011

Preckwinkle. What a great name!

[hyader]

02:16 PM on 08/09/2011

Cut the double dipping pensions , like Bobby the Bandit Steele,, Cut up every EXPENSE account and let the public employees deduct ,,,,not cars or vehicles ,,,,,cut staffs , perks and entitlements

HAVE THEM PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE OF HEALTH CARE AND PENSION PREMIUMS

[RSK1177]

10:41 PM on 08/09/2011

Great idea. but like Wisconsin, the unions will not allow for members paying their fair share of health care premiums and pension funds. Illinois will be bankrupt like California very shortly.

[StansDad]

02:04 PM on 08/09/2011

The title should read: Rant about your partisan ideas without doing research or consulting any experts.

[roald]

01:53 PM on 08/09/2011

Eliminate waste. Waste is not "the programs and services with which I disagree." It is the failure to take advantage of every opportunity to provide those programs and services as effectively as possible. Talk to some quality professionals to understand what this means.

On the other hand, eliminating waste is political, if not literal suicide. Some waste can be eliminated without anyone noticing. The rest means someone does not get their kickback and they will be very angry.

[JoniDear]

01:39 PM on 08/09/2011

The aldermen's expense allowance more than doubled in 2008 to $73,280 each from $33,280. That needs to go back down to the original amount. I just saved the city over a million dollars. That was easy.
Also, stop arresting teens (or anyone) for simple pot possession, just to start running them thru the system just to create revenue. The tax payers pay for that system and that's a waste of money.

[Meggie]

01:45 PM on 08/09/2011

Good points.

[patg00]

02:06 PM on 08/09/2011

No alderman in county government.

[Meggie]

01:31 PM on 08/09/2011

FIX THE SCHOOLS! No excuses - hire the best teachers and pay them. Fund science labs and library/tech FIRST. That whole idea of fighting residents when they wanted a library and school officials wanted more sports nonsense was insane! Schools will get more people moving into the city and provide larger tax base. THEN quit with the privatization o public infrastructure! It's NEVER a good idea. Then cut ALL limo service and special perks for ALL government positions, and that means your limo, too, Rahm. Take the bus. Look into single payer health care like the city of San Francisco has and apparently likes.

[patg00]

02:08 PM on 08/09/2011

Rahm does not work for the County, This is a county, not a city article.

[hyader]

02:14 PM on 08/09/2011

COOK COUNTY,,,,, There are excellent schools in the burbs that don't spend as much per pupil as the CPS ......

and as far as Chicago,,, Vouchers and get rid of tenure

[johnqpublik]

01:14 PM on 08/09/2011

Cut 10% across the board, raise property and sales taxes 5%, and other home rules taxes and fines and fees 10%. Now you've got an $8 million surplus.

Of course, as people continue to flee the Cook County area, make sure to cut expenditures proportionally to the decrease in revenue.

[roboman]

04:04 PM on 08/09/2011

The county already has high taxes and you want to raise them even more? Brilliant! And then you admit the economic insanity o your plan, "as people continue to flee Cook County..." Is that the point, drive people out? CUT SPENDING!

[Jai Hro]

05:11 PM on 08/09/2011

I would not mind a property tax increase if they spent well in the first place but my taxes are more then my mortgage. Not to mention all the vacant properties in Chicago where no one is paying anything. It's puts a strain on the rest of us.