Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle speaks to the media after Wednesday’s board meeting about her proposal to raise the Cook County sales tax rate by 1 percent. Looking on is County Commissioner John Daley, chairman of the county’s Finance Committee. Photo by Kevin Beese/for Chronicle Media

It’s too close to call on whether a proposed increase in the Cook County sales tax rate has enough votes to pass.

A single vote could be the difference between passage and failure of the measure which would increase the county’s sales tax 1 percent. The sales tax hike, pushed by County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, is seen as the only way to locally start addressing the county’s pension fund deficit which grows by $30 million every month.

“I think it is going to be a 9-8 vote,” said County Commissioner Tim Schneider, a vocal opponent of the sales tax hike. “It is still very close. I think a couple of commissioners are going to be making the decision.”

Preckwinkle, in a press conference after Wednesday’s County Board meeting, stopped short of saying the votes are there to get the sales tax hike through and put the county’s sales tax rate back at 1.75 percent.

“We’re working on it,” Preckwinkle said of lining up the votes.

Schneider said he believes it hypocritical for him to be ruled out of order for wanting the County Board to commit to a property tax freeze before starting the budget process, but Preckwinkle can propose a sales tax hike before the budget discussions start.

“I find it interesting that I was ruled out of order for wanting to discus a property tax freeze, being told that could only be discussed in budget talks, and then finding out that other revenue sources, like a sales tax increase, can be discussed outside of the budget talks,” Schneider said Thursday.

In Chicago, when the proposed county sales tax hike would be coupled with the city and state rates, the sales tax rate would be 10.25 percent, the highest in the nation.

The county’s sales tax had been increased to 10.25 percent under former board President Todd Stroger, but Preckwinkle came into office and got the measure rescinded in two stages.

She said she now supports restoring the tax hike because the county can no longer wait for Springfield to address its pension crisis.

“We have been forced to do the heavy lifting because no one is coming forward in Springfield to do it for Cook County,” Preckwinkle said.

She did say that she would be willing to lower or negate the sales tax hike if state lawmakers provide pension help for the county.

Preckwinkle said with the amount of money the county pension fund needs, the only options are a sales tax hike or a property tax increase.

Both Preckwinkle and Commissioner John Daley, who heads the county’s Finance Committee, said there was no support from any commissioners to go the route of a property tax hike.

“There was no support for a property tax hike,” Daley said.

The idea of just sending the sales tax hike proposal to the Finance Committee for consideration caused a division in the County Board at Wednesday’s meeting. The move was approved, in a 10-5 vote.

Voting against sending the issue to committee were: Commissioners Jerry Butler, John Fritchey, Bridget Gainer, Larry Suffredin and Schneider.

Commissioners Greg Goslin and Jeffery Tobolski were absent.

Voting for sending the issue to committee were: Commissioners Luis Arroyo Jr., Richard Boykin, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Liz Gorman, Stanley Moore, Joan Patricia Murphy, Peter Silvestri, Deborah Sims, Robert Steele and Daley.

“These should not be referred to committee; they should be part of the budget process,” Suffredin said.

Fritchey said the vote was not even about whether an individual supports reinstating the higher sales tax, but whether the issue should go to committee or be part of budget discussions.

“It really gets into a fundamental procedural issue on whether we want to start taking up revenue items outside of the entire budget process,” Fritchey said. “There is not a sense of urgency other than to maybe get the pain over and done with. This is an item that should be part and parcel of larger budget discussions; and to even advance this procedurally when we do not know what the overall budget is going to look like is premature and unwarranted.”

At one point during the meeting, Schneider lamented that the county is able to give employees a 2 ½ percent pay increase “but we have no other choice than to raise sales tax” by 1 percent.

Preckwinkle noted in her press conference that although county employees received a 2 ½ percent raise, 1 percent of that increase went to them paying higher insurance premiums,

No dates have been set yet for the next county Finance Committee meeting or the public hearings required regarding a sales tax increase.