Chicago, IL – Cook County Commissioner Sean M. Morrison has submitted an amendment today to close the $22.5 million budget gap faced by Cook County in its FY2016 budget. The proposed amendment will allow for $22,500,000 of discretionary revenue to be allocated to cover the shortfall in the proposed FY2016 Cook County budget.
Commissioner Morrison’s amendment comes in response to four newly proposed taxes which are intended to provide even more taxpayer dollars to the county beyond the recent 1% sales tax increase. The four newly proposed taxes are: Hotel Tax, Ticket Resellers/Brokers Tax, E-Cigarette & E-Vapor Tax, and a Firearm Ammunition Tax.
“I’m unequivocally opposed to all four taxes. My amendment would fund nearly one quarter of a billion dollars in an additional payment to the county pension fund and we would not have to burden the citizens and businesses of Cook County with more taxes which would be in addition to the unpopular sales tax increase passed just four months ago,” stated Morrison.
Commissioner Morrison has submitted his proposal to amend Item #15-6279 (before the Finance Committee tomorrow Friday, November 13th) which is the proposed Intergovernmental Agreement (“IGA”) with the Cook County Pension Fund for FY2016 that would authorize the county’s Chief Financial Officer to disburse $248,026,000 instead of a suggested $270,526,000 in additional discretionary funds to the pension fund. This additional payment would be on top of Cook County’s Actual/Statutory Contribution of $195M.
The discretionary revenue allocated in the proposed IGA will come from the $310 million projected to be generated and collected from the 1% sales tax increase passed in July. “It’s imperative that we operate within the budget and revenue we have and that’s why I believe it makes good fiscal sense to utilize $22.5 million of discretionary funds to close the budget hole instead of adding four more taxes onto the county rolls,” concluded Morrison.