Politics

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A budget blow-up may occur on Friday when the Cook County Board reconvenes for budget talks.

This is the first time since Commissioner William Beavers (D-4th) claimed the budget standoff is based purely on race.

Board President Todd Stroger wants his $3 billion budget passed on Friday. But there is still a $239 million shortfall, and the board has not agreed on Stroger's proposed tax hikes to plug what remains of that shortfall. About $1 million was cut at a nine-hour meeting Tuesday.

Beavers said at that meeting he believed if Stroger were white, he would not encounter such resistance against his budget. In an interview on Wednesday with CBS 2's Derrick Blakley, Beavers was not backing down.

"If Todd was white, he wouldn't have half the problems he's got now, let's face it – that's what it's about," Beavers said. "Are black folks going to run it, or are white folks going to run it?"

At the meeting, Beavers compared the situation at the County Board to the Council Wars at City Hall when Harold Washington was mayor, where racially-fueled votes often ended in 29 opposing aldermen voting against the mayor's initiatives.

Commissioner Tony Peraica (R-16th), the man Stroger defeated in the election, said he's opposing Stroger's billion dollar tax hike to protect taxpayers.

"They're being taxed to death, and that's what it's about," Peraica said. "It has nothing to do with color."

But Beavers isn't buying that. During a break in Tuesday's finance hearings, he lashed out at Peraica.

"He don't have no love for black people," Beavers said. "I told you he has a history of fighting black folks when he lived in Bridgeport as a young man."

Peraica responded, "I respect everyone in our society. I give them credit and respect they deserve. And those comments are really an affront, not just to me but to every thinking human being in the county."

Even Commissioner John Daley, a Stroger ally, was surprised by Beavers' words, defending Peraica. "It's wrong for anyone to play the race card," he added.

Peraica and others say the comments are born of a desperate frustration that Stroger can't pass a 2 percentage-point sales tax hike or other increases.

Beavers accused the wider board of racism, too, saying they cut the budgets of two black county officials – Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and Recorder Eugene Moore – while leaving white office-holders untouched.

"If you're going to cut, cut across the board," Beavers said.

When commissioners voted to make cuts to county Moore's office, cuts Moore said he supports, Beavers implied Moore wasn't smart enough to understand the cuts and Republican commissioners must have used racial intimidation to get him to agree.

Peraica says he offered an amendment to do just that, cut the budget by 2 percent across the board; it did not pass.

In his budget proposal, Stroger asked the board to pass a sales tax hike, which would raise the sales tax in the county to 11 percent – the highest of all major U.S. cities.

The plan also calls for doubling the county gasoline tax from 6 to 12 cents a gallon, and doubling the county parking tax. A monthly parker paying $30 in taxes would pay $60.

Stroger's proposed tax hikes would actually bring in more revenue than is needed to balance the budget. The sales tax increase, if enacted, would bring in $142.2 million during 2008, and $460 million a year after that.

As proposed, the budget would not increase the county's share of property taxes.

The budget eliminates 735 jobs, reduces overtime and streamlines hospital administrative services. But it also provides for more than 1,100 new positions. Stroger said the majority, 690, are in health services, and were staffing changes recommended by consultants. 

The STNG Wire contributed to this report.

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