So, we are deep in the heart of taxes here in Cook County. The new sales tax hike went into effect July 1, and no one is happy about it. The 10.25 percent sales tax is the highest in the nation, and, coupled with the price of gas, the price of groceries,
Taxes are the cost of government. You can only get what you pay for, but since we are paying so much, we have to make sure we truly are getting the most efficient government and seek ways to get it for less.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has argued that the government he heads up needs extra money to continue to bring the kinds of services to county residents that they have become accustomed to.
That includes providing quality health care for those who cannot afford it, making sure that streets are maintained and operating one of the largest court systems in the country. They are government services that cannot be farmed out and cannot be eliminated because they are at the core of the county’s mission.
But the challenge for Stroger, and the entire board of commissioners, amid all these other cost hikes, is to find a way to reduce the government and still provide the service. That means he has to find a way to be more efficient in delivering those services, perhaps by working with the city to try to combine services where possible and to perhaps join with the city in some of its purchasing of services. If the county and city combine their purchases of office supplies, cleaning services, etc., there could be some economies realized.
The challenge for Mayor Richard Daley is to recognize that his city residents are also Cook County residents and that it is in his best interest to try to come up with ways to reduce the tax burden. That means he has to reach out to Stroger and the County Board, not just sit back and say it is not his tax. When residents are paying more simply because they live in Cook County, Mayor Daley has to make bold moves to address it.
It is, to be sure, a challenge. But the county and the city must accept the challenge because these taxes piled upon taxes only serve to further burden the residents, and there is a breaking point where first, residents do their shopping out of the county, and then move out of the county themselves. That leaves an even larger burden on those who cannot, or will not, move.
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