All Week Long
Originally published on WBEZ.org by Kristen Schorsch | Oct 10, 2024
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is pitching a good news budget for next year: no layoffs, new taxes or tax hikes.
Her proposed $9.89 billion spending plan includes investments in generative artificial intelligence to help county workers do their jobs more efficiently — not to replace them — along with replenishing a fund to help communities helping migrants or hit hard by flooding, and putting solar panels on county facilities to ultimately lower energy costs and save the county money.
And there’s a big goal: essentially having contracts in place by Dec. 31 to spend all of the $1 billion in federal pandemic relief dollars the county has received. So far, the county has committed 84% of the money. Preckwinkle and her finance team vow to hit the deadline.
Originally published on ChicagoTribune.com by A.D. Quig | Oct 10, 2024
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle unveiled her $9.89 billion 2025 budget proposal Wednesday, closing a $218 million projected budget shortfall without tax or fee hikes, program cuts or layoffs.
“I think it’s fair to say this is a good-news budget,” Preckwinkle told reporters during a Wednesday afternoon briefing ahead of her official budget speech Thursday morning.
Preckwinkle was unfazed earlier this summer when describing the 2025 gap, which represented a small percentage of the county’s overall budget. This year’s cuts are limited to the elimination of 56 vacant positions, but no layoffs. Most of those were positions funded by federal pandemic relief, county officials said.
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