Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle doesn’t think residents of unincorporated Cook County pay as much as they should for police protection from the county sheriff’s department.
Her assertion isn’t going over well in the Kimberly Heights subdivision, an unincorporated area near Tinley Park.
Preckwinkle’s proposed 2012 budget includes a plan to have residents of unincorporated areas pony up — about $150 more per year for the average homeowner — unless they want to contract out for police services or annex into a neighboring town.
Preckwinkle argues that those residents, an estimated 98,000 countywide, make up 2 percent of the county population and the other 98 percent are paying taxes for police services they don’t use.
“They should pay their fair share,” Preckwinkle said.
Hearing about the plan made Kimberly Heights resident Jackie Oziemkowski roll her eyes.
“Where do all our taxes go? It’s ridiculous. I’m pretty upset,” she said. “I don’t think eight grand a year (in property taxes) is not a lot of taxes. We pay a lot. Now they don’t want to give us police? So we have to get our own police force? Wow. How nice.”
“I think it (stinks),” fellow subdivision resident Don Foege said.
The proposal already has met opposition among county commissioners, too.
Elizabeth Gorman (R-Orland Park) said providing for the public safety of all residents of the county is “one of the main statutory responsibilities of the county of Cook,” and unincorporated residents pay the same taxes as everyone else.
Two Republican commissioners who represent the northwest suburbs, Tim Schneider and Gregg Goslin, pointed out the fairness statement could be made about many county services, saying their constituents could argue they pay for services they never use, such as Stroger Hospital.
Preckwinkle conceded “there’s an inevitable unevenness in the use of county resources and services, but I think everybody should pay their fair share.”
Many residents of Kimberly Heights want to continue being served by the sheriff’s police.
“I see them almost every day,” Karl Maerz said of the patrols. “We don’t like to be incorporated because the taxes go up, the water (rates) go up. It’s not why we moved here.”
He said paying a special fee to the county for the patrols or hiring Tinley Park police would be too expensive.
“I don’t know what to make of this idea,” Maerz said. “Politics?”
Foege, who has lived in the Kimberly Heights subdivision for 34 years, said he doesn’t want to incorporate — “I don’t want anybody telling me when I can water my lawn,” he said — and he doesn’t want to lose the sheriff’s police, either.
“We had a rash of car break-ins earlier this year,” he said. “Someone broke into my Hummer and got into the garage, going through my wife’s car. ... I called the county sheriff and they were out here in two minutes. Another one was here a minute later.”
Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki said he wasn’t sure how the village would determine what to charge residents of the unincorporated area if they wanted to hire Tinley Park police.
Village police already assist the sheriff’s police on life-threatening calls, Zabrocki said.
Kevin Kellar, a resident of an unincorporated area near Palos Park, said that although he doesn’t want to pay more taxes, he understands Preckwinkle’s reasoning.
“She may have a leg to stand on. It sounds fair. But I wouldn’t want to be incorporated,” he said.
Back in Kimberly Heights, Norman Patterson seemed resigned to paying more eventually.
“We should just incorporate now and get it over with,” he said.