Go Free Yourself

Remember when Cook County Board President Todd Stroger pushed through a 1 percent sales tax increase (giving Chicago the dishonor of being the Most Taxed City in the Nation), pleading with taxpayers and commissioners “to make sacrifices for the good of county government”?

It was BS then, of course, but wait ’til you hear this: evidently the “good of county government” was code for “giving his cousin a ginormous raise.”

Donna Dunnings, Stroger’s cousin and the county’s Chief Financial Officer, is set to receive a 12 percent raise—higher than any other county employee—which brings her salary to $160,000. This is $5k more than the last CFO, even though she claimed when she started last year that she’d save taxpayers money by taking a lower salary than her predecessor.

This is ridiculous.

Here’s the award you never want your city to win: my beloved Chicago is now the most taxed city in the nation, after the Cook County Board of Commissioners and Board President Todd Stroger passed a 1 percent sales tax increase on Saturday. You’ll have to excuse me if don’t pull out the champagne and balloons, though.

After all, I’m not sure I’ll be able to afford it.