President Preckwinkle Unveils $9.89 Billion Recommended Budget

No new taxes in responsible, balanced budget

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Thursday unveiled a proposed $9.89 billion Executive Budget Recommendation for Fiscal Year 2025. This responsible and balanced budget includes hundreds of millions in funding for equity-focused programs, continued pandemic recovery efforts and essential services without layoffs, tax increases or cuts to services.

“This balanced budget and our strong financial position are the product of strategic policies, thoughtful spending, careful planning and a clear long-term vision,” said President Preckwinkle. “This strong fiscal foundation is because we have been consistent in setting priorities and making the tough decisions to enact them. The result of these difficult decisions and hard votes by our Cook County Board of Commissioners over the years is a fiscally responsible and community-focused budget that fosters safe, thriving and healthy communities.”

Preckwinkle added that since the pandemic, Cook County has received three bond rating upgrades, spearheaded legislation to fully fund its pensions in 30 years, built up its reserve funds and developed hundreds of millions of dollars in equity-centered programs and pandemic relief efforts. These accomplishments come while closing almost $1 billion in preliminary budget gaps since 2020.

“Despite facing a pandemic, numerous economic risks and persistent budgeting challenges, Cook County finds itself in a strong financial position,” Preckwinkle said. “We have received numerous ratings increases, been recognized for developing and implementing a plan to fully fund our pensions and are doing more without asking more of taxpayers.”

The County was able to close a $218.2 million projected budget gap through a combination of higher-than-expected revenue collections like sales taxes and expenditure reductions like lower than anticipated health care and payroll cost. The County’s budget department worked closely with separately elected officials to identify areas for saving and structural solutions to avoid the need for raising any new taxes, fines or fees.

Continued Federal Pandemic Relief Efforts

Cook County directly received over $1 billion from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and has coordinated an extensive process to develop a responsible, comprehensive and equitable spending plan. The County is investing $800 million, roughly 80% of the federal funds received, in community programs for County residents and businesses. This means that an overwhelming majority of this once-in-a-lifetime funding will go to programs for residents, not operational costs.

This includes the nation’s largest publicly funded guaranteed income initiative and a program to abolish up to $1 billion of medical debt. Hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding has also been dedicated to health care and health access initiatives, justice initiatives, violence prevention programs, infrastructure improvements and environmental projects.

Last year, the County established an ARPA reserve to help sustain ARPA programs beyond the expenditure period. This reserve will provide hundreds of millions of dollars to continue pandemic programming and gives the County additional time and flexibility to identify grants and permanent funding sources for these programs, which is an important step toward sustaining vital programs established during the height of COVID-19. A community survey to solicit additional public input on ARPA programs will open again starting October 15. It will be available at https://arpa.cookcountyil.gov/survey.

Equity Fund in FY25

In addition to its ARPA work over the last several years, Cook County continues to achieve more equitable outcomes for residents across Cook County via an Equity Fund established in 2021. In FY2025, the County is proposing $103.1 million to continue addressing structural inequities. Through this fund, the County will work to address community safety through gun violence prevention grants and returning resident grants. It will also administer the scaling of Community Violence Intervention (CVI) strategies and investments in partnership with the Government Alliance for Safe Communities (GASC), an unprecedented collaboration between leaders at the State of Illinois, City of Chicago and Cook County.

“I am proud of the important progress we have made since taking office and excited about the work we will be doing through this budget. We are promoting equity, matching services to needs, spending wisely, directing innovative pandemic programs and doing all of this without raising taxes. It has not always been easy -- but we’ve done this by building fiscal discipline and sticking to it,” added Preckwinkle.

Budget Highlights

In addition to important ARPA and Equity Fund investments, the FY25 budget includes a number of important new programs, initiatives and goals including:

• A $15 million investment in renewable energy by funding solar panels on County facilities anticipated to generate $16.2 million in energy cost savings over the next 20 years.
• $4 million towards Generative Artificial Intelligence projects to augment the County’s decision making and operations, benefitting both residents and County employees.​
• Increased funding for the Veterans Assistance Commission to provide further access to benefits for eligible veterans in the County.
• Full mental health benefits coverage for County employees
• Additional staffing for the property tax valuation division.

Public Health Highlights

The County Health Fund’s FY2025 proposed budget of $5.15 billion is $889.3 million higher than the FY2024 adopted budget. The FY2024 adopted budget assumed a greater decrease in CountyCare membership due to the resumption of the redetermination process for Medicaid eligibility rolling out during the year. However, membership retention was higher than anticipated and CountyCare also welcomed new members through the State’s Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults/Seniors programs, resulting in an increase in forecasted CountyCare capitation revenues as well as managed care claims expenses in FY2025 compared to the FY2024 budget.

In FY2025, CCH will further implement cost savings and control measures aimed at member costs, as well as increasing CCH medical and pharmacy utilization. This includes enhanced management programs for chronic diseases, expanding value-based care agreements and magnified management of specialty services. CountyCare also anticipates enhancing utilization of CCH’s virtual immediate care. Preckwinkle noted the strong work of the hospital system while also highlighting that this summer it reported the smallest preliminary gap of her tenure.

Budget Materials Available Online

All FY2025 budget information is now posted to the Cook County website, allowing the public to review documents and engage with the President’s Office directly. An interactive budget website is available providing historic financial data and detailed budget information. Residents can also see how ARPA funds are being utilized at arpa.cookcountyil.gov.

Starting today, residents can also now submit budget questions here.

Download the Budget at Glance document here.

Read President Preckwinkle's full budget address here.

Watch President Preckwinkle's full budget address here.