It’s rare these days to read about any tax rate dropping. County Commissioners in Cook County, Illinois, home of Chicago and some of the metropolis’ suburbs, voted earlier this year to cut the county’s sales tax rate by 0.5%. Cook County Board President Todd Stroger vetoed the rollback. Yesterday, the veto was overridden. On July 1, 2010, the sales tax rate will fall. For Chicago, this means that the sales tax rate will fall from 10.25% to 9.75%.
“Some people will die needlessly for lack of access to the health care our system provides today,” Stroger said to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Two other politicians have clearer heads about the matter. Republican County Commissioner Timothy Schneider called it “…a $195 million rebate to the people of this county.” Democratic County Commissioner Forrest Claypool noted that it was part of a voter revolt. He told the Sun-Times, “What people see … is a county government that is too often a friends and family plan, a jobs machine for the politically connected.”
Politicians everywhere need to realize that there’s no such thing as government’s money. All of the money to fund government comes from the people. Commissioner Claypool noted that there’s no reason why government can’t be run more efficiently. He’s right. When times are tough government needs to cut back. Finally, Mr. Stroger’s comments about lives being lost is fatuous. Union employees will have to make do with either a smaller raise or perhaps the same salaries or even cuts. After all, that’s what we the people are having to do during the recession.
Tags: CookCounty