Reaction to the county sales tax hike

Here is a great wrap-up of some of the reaction to last week's vote to increase the Cook County sales tax. (Note: the link may be subscriber-only, in which case I'm not sure how I got through and saw it.)

I agree with the first part. When Cook County government is dominated by (basically) the city political machine, why should the suburbs have to go along with it? I would want to secede too, because it just doesn't make sense to pound the residents of Palatine or Schaumburg with taxes to support the county hospital system, which almost no one out there uses. It's just for all the poor people and illegals in the city to get free medical care. A commenter nails it:

At least I’m lucky enought to have health insurance. Many “middle class” families just can’t afford it, yet they have to pay for health services to Chicago’s poor that they themselves have to do without. And, in this era, I really don’t see the link between Chicago and the suburbs … other than going to a sports event, most suburbanites just don’t go to the city any more. The jobs (what’s left of them) are in the burbs. So, why are we saddled with subsidizing Chicago’s squalor???

I think that the suburbs should split into 2 or 3 additional counties. There are more people in the suburbs than in the city, yet the county seems to operate primarily for the city’s benefit and at the expense of the burbs. But, we all know that this will never happen, since Daley and company will never let their cash cow be led off to another pasture.