You know, I really don't like biased editorializing masquerading as reporting in the news section of a paper, but sometimes you have to call a spade a spade. That's what happened today in the Sun-Times regarding the Cook County hospital system, in a follow-up to yesterday's report that (surprise!) health experts could run the system better than politicians:
In one ear, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has health-care officials imploring him to relinquish control of the county hospital system to a panel of medical experts who can run it better than any group of politicians.
In the other ear are politicians and hangers-on urging him to think twice about giving up control of 7,000 jobs and millions of dollars in contracts at a hospital system long seen as ground zero of the county patronage dumping ground.
Now that's a reporter putting his opinions in a piece, but it's true. In anything the government controls, politics is going to trump all else. That's an immutable law, and anyone who doesn't think it's true is delusional. Anyway, the whole article is short and worth reading.
In other news, Mayor Daley has given up on his property tax hike:
By talking compromise, the mayor is simply facing reality: There is no way he can get the 26 votes he needs to approve the largest property tax increase in Chicago history.
What I don't understand is how residents can get so cranky about a property tax increase, but they don't seem to care about the multitude of other taxes that are going to be imposed. it's one of those mysteries, I guess:
Aldermen who have endured five days of heat from their fuming constituents made that perfectly clear during day one of City Council budget hearings. In fact, they tripped over themselves to propose property tax alternatives.
Then there is the Mayor's Quixotic (or so I hope!) quest for more libraries:
On Tuesday, Daley was asked point-blank what he would do if he can't get the 26 votes he needs to approve a separate property tax levy to maintain and build public libraries.
"I don't know. I don't know yet. It's very controversial. . . . How can we get that down to a smaller amount that you can basically fund libraries," he said.
I just don't understand. Why libraries? He must be losing it. I guess with no more expensive parks to build and with his insane 2016 Olympics dream thankfully going down the tubes (and thus, no huge projects to build with it), he needs something else big to piss away our money on. How about a legacy as a fiscal conservative who reigned in wasteful spending?
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