Politics
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on 2027 Budget, Historic Midterm Election
Cook County is preparing to pass a $9.6 billion budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year.
Board President Toni Preckwinkle said her plan closes a projected $550 million budget gap without any new taxes, fees or layoffs.
It comes as the county grapples with unprecedented federal funding cuts and threats from the Trump administration, mostly aimed at healthcare and immigration enforcement.
Preckwinkle joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss how she balanced next year’s budget, winning a fifth term, and a possible mayoral endorsement.
On balancing the budget:
Preckwinkle previously told reporters that her proposal was thanks to “budget magic” while also calling it “the most difficult budget year since 2011.”
“The first thing we did was ask for belt-tightening. We asked our departments and bureaus and separately elected officials to cut their budgets and that was about 8% cuts in those budgets. We looked to use some of our reserves. Because of our fiscal responsibility over the last 16 years, we do have reserves that we can tap in emergencies. And this is truly an emergency situation.”
On focusing on healthcare:
Nearly half of Preckwinkle’s proposed budget will be dedicated toward county-wide healthcare services. She said these allocations are largely due to federal funding cuts from the Trump administration that have resulted in widespread safety-net hospital closures while thousands of Cook County residents are set to lose Medicaid coverage.
“We’ve seen a hundred-million-dollar increase in our charity care already, and we anticipate greater impacts in the years to come as Medicaid continues to change in ways that will make fewer people eligible for Medicaid coverage, which was deliberate. It’s not a frontal assault, but it’s an effort to reduce federal support for healthcare in this country, which I think is an abomination.”
On the midterm election:
Preckwinkle defeated Libertarian Michael Murphy in last week’s election with 79.7% of the vote, according to unofficial results with 98% of the vote counted. It will be her fifth term as Cook County Board president, tying the record with former Board President George Dunne. Voters also flipped all county board seats blue after the 17th District elected Democrat Elyse Hoffenberg. These wins were part of a large Democratic sweep in Illinois and across the country.
“First of all, I’m grateful to the American people. I was pretty discouraged by Trump’s reelection, and this cycle restored my faith. … Some amazing things happened, and it’s a message to the Democrats that we have to make some changes and it was also a referendum on President Trump and a pretty resounding rejection of the state of our economy, the war in the Middle East and the corruption, frankly, that plagues him and his family members.”
On a potential mayoral endorsement:
Preckwinkle has worked closely with Mayor Brandon Johnson, who formerly served as a Cook County commissioner before landing Chicago’s top spot. Johnson is seeking reelection in February.
“I haven’t made any commitments to anyone and I won’t this first cycle. We’ll see what happens in the runoff.”
