Bob Fioretti is convinced eight years of Toni Preckwinkle as Cook County Board president is more than enough for local taxpayers.
“Here in Cook County, we all know a penny saved is not a penny earned, it’s a penny taxed,” Fioretti, who has launced his primary campaign against Preckwinkle, said during a recent appearance on the "Chicago's Morning Answer" radio show. “Cook County has a budget that does not need any increase in taxes. We need government that can live within its means and quit taxing people out of county,”
"Chicago's Morning Answer" is co-hosted by Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson. Proft is a principal of Local Government Information Services, which owns this publication.
The former Chicago 2nd Ward alderman and one-time mayoral candidate has now formally launched his 2018 primary campaign against Preckwinkle. In 2016, he also ran for a seat in the Illinois Senate.
While Fioretti, a former Chicago 2nd Ward alderman and one-time mayoral candidate, hints the county's now repealed penny-per-ounce soda tax was the final straw for him in deciding to enter the race, he argues Preckwinkle has given him no shortage of reasons.
“(There are) a whole host of issues over the last eight years,” he said. “Eight years ago, voters voted for one thing and got another. Senseless taxes are driving people and small businesses out of Cook County.”
The 63-year-old cancer survivor who ran for a seat in the Illinois Senate in 2016 said his campaign platform will revolve around spurring economic growth, keeping taxes in line and generating more revenue for county coffers.
“We have created a budget that is so out of control that it’s almost not sustainable,” he said. “There are a lot of recommendations we can do in terms of downsizing, rightsizing government that we better start looking at.”
In announcing his candidacy, the Chicago Sun-Times has reported Fioretti championed himself as the “independent voice of reason.”
After serving two terms as alderman, he lost his seat when ward maps were redrawn in 2012 and the rejiggered boundaries left his West Loop home outside the confines of the ward he had served since 2007.
Fioretti blasted the remap as a farce and in 2011 waged a campaign for mayor against Rahm Emanuel, finishing with 7.4 percent of the vote.
“It’s all a system of helping each other and not the people that need it the most,” Fioretti said of the state’s political landscape. “We have to look at conflict of interest of our legislators.”
As for his health, Fioretti said it’s no longer a concern. He said his throat cancer has been in remission for more than eight years now and he feels fit and healthy.
“I would not be doing this if I was not healthy,” he told the Sun-Times, noting that he exercises daily.
With the soda tax slated to officially end Dec. 1, Preckwinkle recently released an amended budget calling for the layoffs of 425 people and the elimination of 762 positions, cuts she said are now needed to close a $200 million shortfall.
In a statement she said: “I am pleased that today we will be introducing an amendment to Cook County's FY 2018 budget that will bring it into balance. The amendment will have bipartisan support from commissioners. I applaud the commissioners for their collaboration on the amendment, as well as the separately elected officials, county staff and the public for their input."
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