Responses to Submitted Questions

Responses to Submitted Budget Questions

The Department of Budget and Management Services strives to be accessible, transparent and responsive to all residents. As part of the budget process, residents can submit budget questions directly to the budget department. Full questions as received via an online form and the corresponding responses for the preliminary forecast will be posted below. Archived responses to previously asked questions are available in the "Downloads" section on the right side of this page.

FY2022 Preliminary Forecast

I would like to know how the County Commissioners and Presidents office plans to follow through on the Justice for Black Lives resolution that passed nearly unanimously last summer in June of 2020. How is the commitment to divest from racist systems of policing and incarceration and to instead direct resources to community needs going to be fulfilled in this year’s budget proposal?

Cook County is in the very preliminary stages of making determinations related to next year’s budget. While we are just taking the initial steps to develop an equitable and inclusive budget, please know that our work will be done through an equity lens that recognizes the impact of systemic racism on the many topics noted in your thoughtful question. 

We are investing in communities that have been historically marginalized. Cook County will continue to implement reforms within the criminal justice system, invest in community-based services, and work with public safety stakeholders to provide the resources necessary to reduce violence.  But more importantly, we are working to develop sustained investments to foster rebuilding and recovery in communities that have been disproportionally disinvested in historically.

We continue to promote policies that refocuses our justice system towards initiatives that reduce recidivism and pretrial detention.  You may also be interested to know that last year Cook County took its first step towards building a sustaining financial investment in these principals through the establishment of the Equity Fund and seeding it with $100 million.  The County also established the Equity Fund Task Force consisting of a diverse group of community members responsible for developing the initial initiatives to be supported by the Equity Fund.  The County is also currently developing a fair and equitable spending plan for $1 billion in Federal funds distributed under the American Rescue Plan Act.

How much money will be distributed to Aunt Martha’s & Raul Garza? What exactly is it for? Are you able to pinpoint the time and date when the funds are going to be disbursed? How much involvement has Lori Lightfoot and Raul Garza and yourself had together.

Since the beginning of 2021, Aunt Martha’s has received approximately $600,000 from Cook County primarily for juvenile probation services through the Office of the Chief Judge. Differing amounts are distributed each month. These payments are made to the organization not the individual noted in your correspondence.

Please do NOT raise taxes and/or fees.   I'm handicapped and don't work.  My property taxes went up over 23% last year in addition to all the additional "fees" that increase so they can say they didn't raise taxes.  Cut whatever you have to.  We will be residents that leave IL if you keep raising taxes and/or fees.

Last year, amidst this dreadful pandemic, the daily challenges, the precipitous drop in revenue, the County’s $6.9 billion budget was balanced without the need for tax increases or severe cuts in the critical services our residents depend on. The County’s FY2020 budget was also balanced without any tax increases.   

With so many people experiencing the financial hardships of the pandemic, we worked hard to avoid the need for tax increases. With foreclosures increasing, we didn’t want to make it more expensive for people to own a home.  With unemployment increasing, we are pleased to have avoided increasing the sales tax and cost of essential goods.  With more people moving into the gig economy to make ends meet, we avoided the need to increase the cost of owning a car or purchasing gasoline.  With the economic recovery of our region as one of our principal concerns, we want to ensure residents and business owners within the County have the best chance possible to recover from the impacts of the pandemic.  Though we reserve the right to use every tool in our tool belt to craft a fiscally responsible budget, we do not anticipate doing so at this time through property tax increases.

You may also be interested to know that the net property tax levy for Cook County has remained constant at $720.5 million since 1996. Cook County property taxes have not been increased in almost 20 years.

We remain committed to building on the progress we have made over the years of passing balanced budgets, addressing our legacy debt, tackling pension obligations and working to secure the County’s financial future. 

How does your office adapt to the extra costs caused by uninsured gunshot victims. And what metrics are used to track these publicly provided expenditures?

We are proud of Cook County Health’s 185-year-old mission to provide quality health care to all residents of the county. Cook County’s Stroger Hospital has the largest trauma unit in the Midwest and is the oldest comprehensive trauma unit in the country. Stroger Hospital sees approximately 1,000 patients with gun-related injuries annually. In total, CCH spends approximately $30 million per year treating victims of gun violence. This only includes the cost of initial hospital treatment, not the extensive outpatient or rehabilitation many patients require. Costs for such care is tracked quarterly. Fortunately, thanks to federal health care reform, a majority of our patients now have health insurance. About 75% of patients with gun injuries are insured. 

CCH cares for more than 500,000 individuals each year, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. Each year, CCH provides hundreds of millions of dollars in free medical care to our uninsured and under-insured patients, far more than any other health system in our region.  The mission to care for the uninsured continues to be at the heart of the health system.

Are you going to give SEIU 73 the same deal you gave other unions so we can end this strike?

Cook County is proud to have a long history of strong relationships with the labor unions that represent our workforce and in recent weeks reached tentative agreements with AFSCME, the Teamsters, NNOC, and FOP. As you may know, Cook County and SEIU 73 also reached a tentative agreement on a contract ending the strike.

Why don’t the members of SEIU deserve the same contract terms as the other unions whom have recently settled their contracts with the county? Did you forget how we once supported you, Toni? Did you forget we worked through a PANDEMIC for your county hospital? Why do we deserve less? Settle the contract, support your service employees!

Cook County is proud to have a long history of strong relationships with the labor unions that represent our workforce and in recent weeks reached tentative agreements with AFSCME, the Teamsters, NNOC, and FOP. As you may know, Cook County and SEIU 73 also reached a tentative agreement on a contract ending the strike.

Why hasn’t the SEIU Local 73 contract been settled? These workers deserve decent respect and pay that matches the work they do for the Cook County community. Please settle the contract!!!

Cook County is proud to have a long history of strong relationships with the labor unions that represent our workforce and in recent weeks reached tentative agreements with AFSCME, the Teamsters, NNOC, and FOP. As you may know, Cook County and SEIU 73 also reached a tentative agreement on a contract ending the strike.

Why don’t the members of SEIU deserve the same contract terms as other unions whom recently settled contracts with the county? These members worked through a pandemic keeping the county hospital open and caring for members of the community. Why do we deserve less? Please settle the contract.

Cook County is proud to have a long history of strong relationships with the labor unions that represent our workforce and in recent weeks reached tentative agreements with AFSCME, the Teamsters, NNOC, and FOP. As you may know, Cook County and SEIU 73 also reached a tentative agreement on a contract ending the strike.

Will you commit to end the SEIU73 strike and sign a proper contract with your employees? Will you honor your "heroes" who worked for you in the jail and the hospital all throughout the pandemic by paying them a decent wage?

Cook County is proud to have a long history of strong relationships with the labor unions that represent our workforce and in recent weeks reached tentative agreements with AFSCME, the Teamsters, NNOC, and FOP. As you may know, Cook County and SEIU 73 also reached a tentative agreement on a contract ending the strike.

How will disabled, multicultural young suburban seniors, like myself, benefit from Cook County's dispersal of ARPA funding and it's future budget spending?

We are currently in the process of developing both our American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and budget spending plans. One way to ensure your priorities are recognized and your voice is heard is by visiting https://www.engagecookcounty.com/ and providing your input on how the County should spend its $1 billion ARPA allocation.

We are working on a robust community engagement process to solicit input from a broad and diverse group of residents and stakeholders across Cook County. We look at ARPA as funding intended for all of our residents—not just for Cook County government.  This means we will spend funds in an equitable manner that provides the largest benefit to the most people over the longest amount of time. 

We are proud of our budgetary work that has placed Cook County in such a financially stable position. Because of this responsible fiscal stewardship, we will not only be able to fill gaps left by the pandemic, but also to invest and infuse new funding into our communities with ARPA funds.

There should be a Pete's, Mariano's and Jewel in  the Austin area. Why does the City of Chicago allow these businesses to continue to open all over the city, but does not require them to fill the major market void on the West side ? There is no need the do a study /survey or have a meeting of any kind, to validate the fact that this is a quality of life essential.

While this is under the jurisdiction of the City of Chicago, President Preckwinkle is in complete agreement and would be interested in collaborating with the City to address this important issue. The President’s Office takes an expansive view of healthy communities by working to address the social determinants of health, including access to adequate and safe housing; equitable education; quality employment opportunities; public transportation; healthy physical environments; recreational spaces and activities and nutrition for our residents.

We know food access is a critical issue in Cook County, where an estimated 600,000 residents live in food deserts—many of them in the south and west suburbs. Improving access to healthy and affordable food options to reduce hunger and enable healthy living, especially within marginalized communities is a major part of the President’s five-year strategic plan for Cook County.