Cook Board rejects full sales-tax rollback

The Cook County Board rejected a full rollback of the 1-percentage-point sales-tax increase imposed two years ago by President Todd Stroger.

Calling threats of a $300 million deficit in the upcoming 2011 budget a “fallacy and “scare tactics, Riverside Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica called for the full rollback Tuesday of the sales tax, which the county board reduced by half this summer.

Yet Evanston Democratic Commissioner Larry Suffredin called the proposal an attempt to “grandstand a month before the Nov. 2 general election.

Suffredin promised the full rollback would come by April 1 under the direction of the next County Board president in tandem with appropriate budget cuts. The measure failed by a vote of 10-6, with only Chicago Democratic Commissioner Forrest Claypool joining suburban Republicans in favor.

The board also voted 9-6 to enforce a boycott on Arizona firms and award an $800,000 uniform contract at the Juvenile Detention Center to a local company that bid $25,000 more than an Arizona firm.