Starve the Beast

So Prickwrinkle admits what everyone knew all along:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Wednesday refused to forecast the outcome of a vote next week that would roll back the a controversial “soda tax,” or whether she would veto a repeal if one passes.
  
  But a day ahead of making her budget address to a Board of Commissioners said to be lined up for a close vote on pulling back the county’s penny-per-ounce tax on sodas and sweetened beverages, Preckwinkle was not shy about saying what would happen without the estimated $200 million in tax revenue projected to come from the tax.
  
  “(We will) make significant cuts to public health and public safety, because that’s where 87 percent of our money goes,” Preckwinkle told reporters, following an unrelated press conference on criminal justice reform.

Um....has she seen the sales figures lately? She isn't going to get anywhere near the $200 million projected AND the sales tax revenues are falling below "projections," which are what normal people call "LIES" in order to deceive the voters and raise taxes/fines/fees at a later date because of "shortfalls."

• Wednesday, Preckwinkle also was clear that, despite an advertising campaign pushing the health benefits of drinking fewer sugary beverages, the tax was always intended as a way to put more money into county coffers without even less-popular options such as raising sales tax across the board or hiking property taxes.
  
  “We chose as a revenue generator a sweetened beverage tax, which had been enacted around the country, both for the revenue and for the health benefits,” she said. “But first and foremost, for the revenue.”

So she's an admitted liar. Time to make a real effort to do no shopping in Cook County, spend no money in Cook County, all to starve the beast that is sucking taxpayers pockets dry.

Use this post to list places outside of Cook County to get shopping done. Northsiders can shoot out to Lake, DuPage and points north. Southsiders to Will and DuPage. Southeastsiders can hit Indiana. These places are within 20-to-30 minutes of Chicago and you can buy gas along with your groceries.

Rahm wants to deprive you of overtime and side-job money, so you better save where you can. Shopping outside Cook County shorts Rahm's pockets, too.