Preckwinkle To Face Taxpayers In Palatine
PALATINE, Ill. (WBBM/CBS) -- Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle faces taxpayers in Palatine tonight.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser reports, a couple of years ago, residents of the northwest suburb voted to break away from Cook County a couple years ago over high taxes.
LISTEN: Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser reports
Podcast
The vote was a symbolic, but the message was clear.
Palatine is among northwest suburban communities that don't think they are getting back what they're paying the county in taxes – not by a long shot.
Preckwinkle has helped to soften the tax blow with a sales tax roll-back. But is that enough?
"I expect to be warmly received tonight in Palatine, and to have an interesting dialogue with the residents," Preckwinkle said.
WBBM 780 asked Preckwinkle if she had any thoughts on suspending the county's portion of the gas tax.
Her answer was that she had "none at the moment. It's not something I've thought of frankly."
The county gets 6 cents of the 50 to 60 cents a gallon that motorists pay for gas.
Serious discussion of secession by Palatine dates back to January 2008, when then-County Board President Todd Stroger passed a 1 percent hike in the county sales tax to balance the budget. The hike brought the sales tax in Chicago to the highest level in the country.
Illinois Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) recently proposed a state constitutional amendment that would have allowed two or more contiguous townships to withdraw from Cook County and form a new county.
But the amendment was sent to an empty the senate Executive Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, which doesn't have any members or scheduled meetings, in what experts say is a common move to sweep away a piece of proposed legislation.
