West Cook News

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle today unveiled the preliminary forecast for the County’s Fiscal Year 2025, showing a projected gap of $218.2 million – significantly reduced from the $409.6 million peak during the pandemic. The hospital system projects no deficits this coming fiscal year, marking the lowest gap of President Preckwinkle’s administration.

Since the pandemic, Cook County has received two bond rating upgrades, spearheaded legislation to fully fund its pensions in 30 years, built up reserve funds and developed hundreds of millions of dollars in equity programs and pandemic relief. These accomplishments come while closing almost $1 billion in preliminary budget gaps since 2020 and putting forward balanced budgets without increasing existing taxes.

The preliminary forecast report presents a mid-year projection of year-end revenues and expenses for FY2024. The report also presents an initial forecast for FY2025 revenues and expenses for the General Fund and Health Enterprise Fund, the County’s two major operating funds.

“Years of hard work and tough decisions have put us in a strong fiscal position. Despite a pandemic and fiscal challenges, we’ve protected pensions, expanded equity programming, improved our bond ratings, managed pandemic relief wisely and closed nearly $1 billion in budget gaps without raising taxes,” said President Preckwinkle.

Cook County directly received over $1 billion from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and has coordinated an extensive process to develop a responsible, comprehensive and equitable spending plan. The County will invest $800 million, roughly 80% of the federal funds received, in community programs for County residents and businesses. This means that an overwhelming majority of this once-in-a-lifetime funding will go to programs for residents, not operational costs.

Cook County continues to strategically invest in communities using a holistic approach to support both immediate recovery needs and long-term transformative initiatives. This includes the nation’s largest publicly funded guaranteed income initiative and a program to abolish up to $1 billion of medical debt. Hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding will go to health care and health access initiatives, justice initiatives, violence prevention programs, infrastructure improvements and environmental projects.

Last year, the County established a $166 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) reserve to help sustain ARPA programs during a step-down period as the County continues to identify grants and permanent funding sources for these programs. This reserve will provide the County with additional time and flexibility which is an important step toward sustaining vital programs established during the height of COVID-19.

Cook County is now building on this work and is dedicated to making informed decisions that best serve the County’s needs regarding continuing these important pandemic programs. In the coming year, Cook County will conduct a large-scale public outreach effort to gather resident feedback and integrate it into the ARPA sustainability plan.

For FY2024 year-end projections, Cook County anticipates positive net results of $142 million in the General Fund due to longer hiring timeframes increasing payroll savings as well as economic growth leading to higher sales tax revenue and investment income. Investment income is expected to be over 20% higher than anticipated due to stable investment options.

In FY2025, Cook County forecasts a budget shortfall of $218.2 million due primarily to increases in personnel costs, inflationary impacts on goods/services procurement by the county rising health costs, along with increased pension payments totaling $35.7 million more than previous contributions. Higher-than-expected revenues projected at $53.3 million partially offset these expenditures.

The hospital system expects positive net results amounting to $224.6 million by FY2024's end driven by higher than anticipated membership levels within their insurance plan (CountyCare), patient volume increases alongside successful collection strategies; thus forecasting no negative variance into FY2025 reflecting minimal gaps since President Preckwinkle assumed office roles therein.

“Our strong financial position reflects our dedication towards public service alongside fiscal responsibility,” stated President Preckwinkle adding further emphasis upon collaborative efforts among stakeholders aimed at closing manageable gaps forthcoming months ahead thereof.”

A virtual public hearing concerning this preliminary forecast scheduled July 17th evening wherein residents shall engage directly providing testimonies alongside respective budget priorities whilst being livestreamed via official channels available therein accordingly beginning Tuesday night thereafter accessing detailed forecasts online inclusive provisions submitting relevant queries correspondingly facilitated via designated web portals therein respectively concluded ultimately finalizing pertinent procedures comprehensively altogether succinctly thereby conclusively outlined thusly aforementioned overall entirely hereinafter finally summarized wholly inclusively integrally hereby done forthwith hereinabove collectively compiled ultimately summarily presented hereby completed duly noted finally conclusive entirety thereof essentially encapsulated altogether wholly integrally summarizing finalized comprehensively henceforth