President Toni Preckwinkle’s 2025 budget soared through the Cook County Board Thursday with only minor tweaks that boost grant funding for abortion nonprofits, set aside $15 million for a future property tax relief fund, and kickstart the contentious process to shift arrestees on electronic monitoring from the sheriff to the chief judge.
Commissioners swiftly approved technical amendments to the budget and took their final 17-0 vote in the span of about an hour. The roughly $9.94 billion “good news” budget closed an initial $218 million shortfall without raising any taxes or fees. It eliminated 56 vacant positions, refilled an emergency response fund, and dedicated nearly $30 million to climate resiliency and clean energy.
Shortly after its unanimous passage, Preckwinkle ran a short victory lap, saying the county has weathered the pandemic, “numerous economic risks,” and “persistent budgeting challenges,” but seen its bond rating upgraded, implemented a plan to fully fund its pensions, and built up reserves. “We’re doing more than ever without asking more from our taxpayers,” she said.
Thursday’s meetings were a milestone for some. It was the last for Commissioner Monica Gordon, who will take over as the county’s clerk in December, and the 30th for longtime Finance Chairman John Daley.
Property tax relief, money for abortion providers
Cook County’s financial stability — and consistent surpluses in recent years — allowed Preckwinkle and the board to spend its federal pandemic aid on a broad array of community projects rather than plugging budget holes. The county allocated $165.4 million for spending on American Rescue Plan Act-funded community programs next year, which range from anti-violence efforts to broadband expansion and road work.
The county will not cut off that programming at the federal “use it or lose it” deadline of Dec. 31, 2026: Preckwinkle has set aside roughly $160 million in non-ARPA dollars to continue or slowly phase out existing programs through 2031.
The county will collect about $825 million in property taxes next year, which is essentially a flat rate. The base property tax level has stayed the same for more than two decades, but the overall levy has risen slightly to tax new property and values that are newly released from expiring special taxing districts.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s planned record surplus from the city’s special taxing districts — known as TIFs — will net the county just under $32 million in 2025, about $11.6 million more than initially anticipated. Commissioners voted to spend $3 million of that extra money to expand a modular home pilot program in Chicago and $8.6 million for a down payment assistance program throughout the county.
Though the board isn’t hiking its property taxes, commissioners quickly approved Commissioner Bridget Gainer’s property tax relief fund during the brief Finance Committee meeting before the full board vote. While they set aside $15 million in county surplus to offer relief to homeowners, they have not yet set qualifying criteria or amounts.
The board similarly approved an amendment from Commissioner Bridget Degnen creating a $2 million grant for community groups that provide wraparound health services for those seeking reproductive health in Cook County. The grant would help cover abortion services, transportation, lodging and childcare for county and non-county residents alike.
The Chicago Abortion Fund’s Qudsiyyah Shariyf applauded the move in public testimony before the vote. “Every investment in the abortion access ecosystem now is a life changing and life saving one,” she said, given the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Roe v. Wade and uncertainty about whether the incoming Trump administration might curb abortion access. “There’s so much uncertainty at this moment. We need to prepare everything that we can because there’s so much that we don’t know.”
“I don’t know how many people it will help. I think it depends on what the need is,” Degnen told the Tribune Wednesday, but the demand is clear. “Illinois has become an oasis, but it’s not going to be an oasis if we don’t have any money to support it. These organizations are running out of money.”
The budget also reflects an agreement reached earlier this month to cut down on the use of outside agency staffing at the county’s hospital system, a longtime gripe of the union representing hospital workers and several commissioners.
The county’s health system has increasingly relied on outside agencies to fill staffing gaps, which the union said created friction between workers being paid less and reduced the quality of care. Health system officials said they’d been working to cut down on the use of agency staff, holding job fairs, offering incentives to new hires, and working to retain current employees.
The agreement with SEIU Local 73 — which represents nearly 1,500 workers at Cook County Health hospitals and clinics — creates 250 union positions and phases out those filled by temporary workers.
Changes coming to county’s electronic monitoring program
Among other amendments approved Thursday: a shift of roughly $6.3 million out of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s budget and into Chief Judge Timothy Evan’s adult probation department.
The lead sponsor of the amendment, Commissioner Stanley Moore, told the Tribune it represented the first step to help Dart shed management of the county’s massive electronic monitoring program for pre-trial detainees.
The idea of transferring EM to Evans has been percolating for years. Dart’s team argued as far back as 2019 that the chief judge was better positioned to run it, since judges decide who is assigned to EM and that it is common practice in other jurisdictions for the program to be handled by the judiciary. Dart has also previously pushed back against some EM assignments for arrestees he considered too “high risk.”
Preckwinkle has supported the swap for years, but the issue had not come to a head until this budget, when Dart began a push to offload the program.
“Since 2022, my administration has advocated for a thoughtful, planned transition to a single, consolidated electronic monitoring system in Cook County,” Preckwinkle said in an early October statement. “I welcome the Sheriff’s new shift towards this shared goal. It is essential that the transition is carefully coordinated to ensure the safety of our communities and the individuals under supervision.”
Reform organizations applauded the start of the transition on Thursday, as well. In a release, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice said the program under Dart “expanded mass incarceration, cost the county millions of dollars, and harmed tens of thousands of people subjected to pretrial surveillance as well as their families. For nearly two decades, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has overseen one of the nation’s largest and most restrictive pretrial electronic monitoring programs.”
Among the complications to making a full transition: union considerations. Concerned about their jobs, sheriff’s employees working in electronic monitoring and represented by Teamsters Local 700 have sought clarity from Dart about the process. He pledged during budget hearings that electronic monitoring staff would be reassigned, not laid off. But the change might mean the loss of specialty pay for those workers, Dart’s staff acknowledged.
Current plans are for Dart to stop managing any new detainees assigned to EM beginning on April 1, though representatives for both offices suggested Thursday that those timelines may shift.