While the estimated budget hole is larger than the $18.2 million gap projected last year, it is one of the county’s smallest deficits in the last decade. Government leaders said that hiring hasn’t budged much in the past year. “We do need to staff up,” Cook County Board President Preckwinkle said.
The proposed county budget, buoyed by rising tax revenues, a healthy fund balance and pandemic relief, stays the course on supplemental pension funding.