Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Angry taxpayers give Stroger earful

Well, I'll say this looks like trouble. From the Tribune today:
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger finally kept his date Monday with taxpayers in the northwest suburbs, where some officials had threatened to secede from the county in anger over a sales tax increase he championed.

Stroger and his staff were met with a combination of laughs and groans as they stood before about 200 northwest suburban politicians and residents to defend the $426 million tax hike.

Many in the audience listened politely, but they were there to show their anger.

"We are now starting to feel that we are now starting to get gouged," said state Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine), who introduced legislation that would make it easier for Palatine to secede from the county. "Do you really understand the competitive disadvantage you're putting the northwest suburbs to?"

The secession movement in Palatine was a long shot at best, but it illustrated a belief by some suburbanites that Stroger wasn't serving them and didn't understand the economic harm a sales tax creates in border towns where shoppers can cross into another county for lower rates.

At Monday's meeting at Harper College, the crowd applauded when Nancy Golemba, 48, of Inverness, said, "I think Cook County represents the residents of Chicago."

"I feel totally disenfranchised," said Jeff Milstein, a jewelry store owner from Schaumburg. "I don't trust you guys."

Stroger, who remained unflappable, said "people don't trust politicians . . . and that's they way this job works."

He also said people near a county or state line sometimes get pinched by a sales tax increase.

"To be honest with you, that's part of being in a large government," he said. "There are going to be areas that are harder hit than others."

In addition to worries that shoppers will look elsewhere, leaders in Palatine have questioned the value of what they get for being in Cook County. They note they have their own police, animal control and health departments, and that they plow most of their own roads. Stroger Hospital, they say, is used mostly by Chicago residents.

At the gathering, the crowd was shown a video outlining county services.
Almost reminds me of the story where there was a movement to secede from Fulton County Georgia. That's the county of the city of Atlanta. Go read the whole Tribune article.

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