Local News

Palatine Mayor: Secession From County Is Possible

County Board President Todd Stroger Backs Out Of Meeting To Discuss Issues

PALATINE, Ill. (CBS) ― Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has backed out of a special meeting in Palatine that many hoped would ease the friction over a sales tax increase that has escalated to a discussion of secession from the county.

Stroger will not be at Harper College Wednesday night because his staff worried the meeting could be their own political agenda.

This year, Stroger persuaded the county board to pass a 1 percentage point sales tax increase -- expected to pump in more than $400 million annually and close a more than $230 million deficit -- that pushes Chicago's cumulative sales tax to 10.25 percent. That's substantially higher than New York and Los Angeles, where the sales tax is less than 8.5 percent.

In Palatine, the sales tax will hit 10 percent in July. The village is concerned that higher property and sales taxes will keep people from starting new business in Palatine, and they wanted to ask Stroger about the county's move at the meeting planned for Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, Palatine Mayor Rita Mullins said in an on-air telephone interview with CBS 2 that the format for the meeting had been changed, and there had been a "misunderstanding" with Stroger's office.

She said earlier that Stroger remains willing to come to Palatine for a community meeting in the near future.

Palatine has discussed seceding from Cook County before, as have other communities. But regardless of whether secession is seriously pursued, action must be taken to protect the village economy, Mullins said.

Palatine is on the line between Cook and Lake counties, and Mullins said a significant amount of business in Palatine was moving to Lake County where taxes are lower.

"It makes it very difficult to attract new business and keep the business that we have," Mullins said.

She said secession is not the first or only solution, and that she hopes a dialogue could be opened with Cook County officials with the goal of saving money and encouraging economic development.

But secession could be accomplished, she said.

"It is not in conceivable that it could happen," Mullins said. "If you got 100 of the 120 communities outside of the city of Chicago, they could petition to disannex, and they could merge with adjacent counties or form their own."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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