#%&@& Cook County!!!!!!!!! (live, district, better)

[ITChick]

Thank you Preaching2thechoir and prariestate for your helpful suggestions on DuPage county. I am going to go to check them out.

[gardener34]

DuPage county real estate can be much more expensive than cook however. Kane county being not too far behind. And Dupage property taxes are quite high in most towns.

[NSH]

Palatine is with me! I think our new name should be Stroger County.
Cook tax increase has county border towns steaming -- chicagotribune.com

[sullyirishtwins]

What about Will County? Isn't Will County better than DuPage and Cook County?

D

[Political Truth]

Dear Filled with Rage:

Did you know that many taxes increases were defeated during the recent "tax for all" actions of the Cook County board! The majority on the board wanted to tax cell phones transactions, utilility bills, begin to sell vehicle stickers to all county residents (yES, TWO STICKERS ON YOUR WINSHEILD), real estate transactions, Todd Stroger wanted a 2% increase in sales tax and the cronies of his father couldn't agree! Only got 1%. Many more attempts....too numerous to continue. The good news is the minority on the board found different combinations of majority members to defeat most tax increase votes. Becuse the minority did not sell out to the majority. They stuck together and battled the force of "TAX and Gift" to the majorities Family & Friends.

Corruption is the tax increase we don't get to approve. When the majority attempts to balance a budget with so many corrupt line items, the budget cannot be balanced. No matter how much lying goes on day to day the holes created in the spending plan, by corruption, perforates the fabric of the document.

Todd Stroger has approx.475 positions he can fill without approval of the Cook County Board. He fills these positions with family, friends and political cronies (Some candidates rewarded for running for elected positions to freeze out political enemies.) When they don't or can't perform the job duties they are moved sideways, keeping their high salaries, and move any hack into the position. If this should happen three times to the same position then the tax payer are paying $300,000 per year for a $90,000 job. Again and again, over and over, everyday, every week,every month. Corruption.

The answer is to tell everyone you know to VOTE out the majority in every position in county government. And hold the new majority responsible to keep it clean. It starts by electing an effective Cook County District Attorney. Out with the majority candidate.

Everyone votes and gets involved in their area in some way. School Board, Park District, Municipality, Cook COunty Board.Attend meetings, listen, educate yourself to the workings of the governent. The only way to get good government is to demand and make good government with our participation. And that doesn't stop after we vote !!

Make It A Good Government!

[Political Truth]

Dear Middle-Age Mom:

If you make your purchases out of Cook County when you are a CC resident, the businesses in Cook COunty are going to fail. When the amount of taxes paid by these Cook County businesses decrease your real estate taxes will make up the loss of commmercial taxes. I know the simple solution seems to be pay 1% less two miles away where the sales tax is lowest. However, that brings about an even harder decision. Move into that couny and pay higher real estate taxes. The collar counties of Cook County have little or no commercial base and real estate taxes are much higher.

[prairiestate]

Originally Posted by Political Truth

...The answer is to tell everyone you know to VOTE out the majority in every position in county government...

ROTFLMAO!!!! Yeah, voting, great plan. Except of course that we no more have a democracy here then they do in China. Such as when Todd was "elected" by first buying off as many votes as he could, then tossing out Peraica ballots in the middle of the night in the county building to secure his election. This is what fills me with rage, not just that we have such an incompetent government, but unlike in most of the country, we have absolutely no recourse against it (i.e. voting).

[Skatemore]

Stroger keeps word, vetoes tax-cut bill
Posted by Greg H. at 7/24/2009 4:04 PM CDT on Chicago Business
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger on Friday vetoed a bill that would have repealed half of the penny-on-a-dollar sales-tax hike he pushed through last year.

With revenues down because of the recession and demand for services up, "A budget cut of this magnitude (is) colossally irresponsible," Mr. Stroger said in a statement, echoing his arguments earlier in the week when he signaled that a veto was coming.

Before any cut, "The county must perform its due diligence and ascertain the ramifications of a reduction in the sales tax as well as the effect it will have on county government," Mr. Stroger added.

He did say that he's asked his budget director to provide three different spending plan options when the board considers the 2010 budget later this week, based on level funding, a 12% cut and a 19% cut.

At the moment, 14 commissioners — enough to override the veto —are on record as favoring the half-penny cut. But the board will not meet again until early September, and Mr. Stroger needs to peel off only one vote to sustain his veto.[SIZE=4]
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[Skatemore]

Key Facts About Cook County
Why the second largest county in America faces a declining population

The Problem

Cook County is the largest county in Illinois, with a population of 5,294,664 (41% of
Illinois’s 12,901,563 residents). However, between April 2000 and July 2008, its population declined at a rate of -1.5%, while the rest of Illinois grew by 3.9%. Why is everyone leaving?

Highest Taxes.

Within Chicago and Cook County, the sales tax burden ranks 1st in the nation at 10.25%. That’s 6.25% to the state, 1.75% to the county, 1.25% to the city, and 1% for a transportation sales tax.

Lots of Taxes.

Altogether, Chicago and Cook County have levied nearly three dozen consumer taxes, with rates as high as 14.59%. Chicago’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts–areas where money is unaccountably diverted from property tax collections for “economic development”–have increased their revenue by 4991.3% between 1986 and 2005.

Budget Balloon.

Rising tax levies have increased county revenues by 6.6% over the past 5 fiscal years, despite a declining population. Between 2000 and 2008, per capita spending in Cook County increased by over 40%. State and Federal Subsidization. Overall, Cook County was subsidized by $414,469,234 in
intergovernmental funds last fiscal year. The federal government funded $35,660,603, and the state of Illinois funded the remaining 90% of intergovernmental funds. That means 13%
of Cook County’s budget comes from outside the county government.

Declining Private Sector.

The private nonfarm employment change in Cook County was a drastic -7.5%, compared to -2.6% in Illinois.

Read more and see solutions at the Illinois Policy Institute

[04JETTA]

So what is the rate now? Someone was telling me in Chicago the total rate is 11.25% is that correct or is it going up again? I have not heard about this
EDIT: and this is one of the reasons I don't live in Cook County