Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski joined several other local elected officials in a meeting with the LaGrange Highlands Civic Association and about fifty LaGrange Highlands residents to discuss issues affecting the community. At issue was the topic of forced annexation.
Commissioner Tobolski opened the conversation by talking about the history of annexation and the unincorporated areas of Cook County. Last year a 2013 Budget Amendment was introduced by the Office of the President to tax each home in unincorporated Cook by at least $250. The administration argued that the residents of unincorporated Cook do not pay a municipal tax on top of the County tax that all residents pay, and were not paying their adequate share for police, zoning and infrastructure services from the county.
The Amendment was eventually pulled and replaced with a compromise of an increased cost of vehicle stickers for unincorporated Cook. The Special Service Area Task Force (SSA) was formed to look into the annexation of the unincorporated areas of Cook County into neighboring communities and to further determine if additional property taxes should be levied in these areas. Tobolski pointed out that there was very little suburban representation on the SSA Task Force and asked to be put on.
The SSA Task force meets monthly and continues to make recommendations to President Preckwinkle and the County Commissioners as to what might be done with the unincorporated areas of Cook County. The committee has proposed three tiers of property in unincorporated cook; those single parcels where annexation should occur, those parcels between 500-1000 residents were annexation is likely to occur, and those parcels where annexation will likely never occur.
A fund of $5 million dollars was set up to assist with infrastructure upgrades so that some annexation might occur. The County is also looking to move away from the outdated Chicago Building Code and adopt the more standardized International Building Code. State law current forbids any forced annexation without a majority vote in favor of annexation by all parties involved.
