Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Citing the government is in dire financial straits, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is proposing a 1 percent hike in the county sales tax rate.

The proposed rate hike would increase the county’s sales tax rate to 1.75 percent, the level it was when former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger was in office. Preckwinkle ran a campaign that included getting rid of the Stroger sales-tax hike, but five years later the need is there to bring it back, the board chairman contends.

The tax, expected to be unveiled at Wednesday’s County Board meeting, is a way to shore up county finances, according to officials in the Preckwinkle administration.

“Cook County is on the brink of a financial crisis,” said Preckwinkle spokesperson Frank Shuftan. “The county pension fund’s obligations are growing at the rate of $1 million each day and thus far Springfield has not acted on our pension reform legislation.

“While the crisis built over a generation, the long-term financial solvency of Cook County depends on us confronting it now. We cannot kick the can to our children and grandchildren.”

Shuftan said Preckwinkle is not just about increasing county revenue, noting that the board president feels that expenditure cuts must be part of the solution as well. During the past five years, Shuftan noted, the administration has closed budget deficits of $1.4 billion, reduced staff by 8 percent (more than 2,000 positions), decreased annual taxpayer funding of the county health system by $225 million and worked to make county government more responsive to residents.

Preckwinkle’s spokesperson said that in next year’s budget “we are targeting expenditure cuts well in excess of $100 million, including roughly an additional $40 million reduction in taxpayer funding to the county health system.”

County Board Commissioner Tim Schneider, who also heads the Illinois Republican Party, said he is against the proposed sales tax increase, feeling it will hurt businesses.

“I did not support the 1 percent increase when it was brought up under former Board President Stroger; and I voted against the sales tax increase when it came up then,” Schneider said. “It is a regressive tax.”

Schneider said with people having purchasing options, businesses along Cook County’s borders will suffer should the county’s sales tax rate rise.

“Businesses on the periphery will be hurt by an uneven playing field … You will see businesses close up and then you will lose property taxes as well as sales tax. We had just gotten people back shopping in Cook County (after repealing the previous sales tax hike in 2013) and now we are going to drive them away again.”

The Preckwinkle administration feels a sales tax hike is more palatable than raising property taxes.

“Over the past several weeks, our finance team presented a number of revenue and expenditure options to our Board of Commissioners,” Shuftan said. “In these discussions, it became apparent that the board would not be willing to support a property tax increase.”

Schneider said neither a sales tax hike nor a property tax increase is the route to take to balance the county budget.

“The county needs to look at cutting its budget,” Schneider said. “We need to shrink the county payroll.”

While Preckwinkle is willing to make more cuts, cutting alone will not right the ship, Shuftan said.

“It is clear that our financial crisis cannot be solved by expenditure reduction alone,” Shuftan said.

Schneider noted that pension reform for the county is on the table with the governor, which could help the government agency’s mounting pension debt.

Preckwinkle said that could help.

“We appreciate that the governor has expressed a willingness to support pension reform for Cook County and look forward to working with him and the legislative leaders in passing a bill meeting Cook County’s pension needs,” Preckwinkle said in a statement. “However, given the current degree of uncertainty in Springfield, until the General Assembly actually passes a bill and the governor signs it, we will continue to move forward with our plans to stabilize Cook County’s pension funds.

“My job as Cook County Board president is to ensure the county’s future financial stability and the steps we are planning are designed to do just that.”