Toni Preckwinkle’s fiscal stewardship of the most populous county in Illinois and the second-most populous county in the United States has been undermined by the recent technological fiasco that has seen property tax bills arrive late across several cycles, meaning money for school districts, library districts, villages and other taxing bodies also arrived late. Many have had to borrow almost $200 million from the county in recent months as they and other taxing bodies awaited their money. There was plenty of blame to pass around for all of this but we held Preckwinkle responsible as Cook County Board president, which explains in large part our decision to endorse her primary rival, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), rather than her campaign to be elected to a fifth term.
But we hardly were surprised when primary voters chose Preckwinkle, a granite rock atop this county, anyway. And in a recent appearance before this board, she promised a new initiative (yet to be announced) designed to give her more power to wrangle the various blame deflectors in the property tax debacle and get the bills out on time. The 79-year-old president also arrived with a proposed 2027 budget of $9.6 billion that has balanced the books without tax increases, a stance we admire, although the plan involves a variety of what Preckwinkle described as one-time fixes in the face of a variety of problems stemming in no small part from federal actions impacting Medicaid and thus the massive Cook County healthcare system. Still, we largely bought her argument that her ability not to raise taxes this coming year has flown from her team’s long-term work to stabilize pensions, improve credit ratings and invest more wisely. Now we will see if she can hold down cost increases when the unions next come to her intimidating table.
In the general election, Preckwinkle faces Michael Murphy, a libertarian, an IT professional and a self-described “grassroots” candidate. Murphy’s campaign mostly appears built from libertarian truisms, all interesting in theory but with little practical referent to this position. Preckwinkle’s credible opposition was in the primary; her endorsement in the general is a no-brainer.
Toni Preckwinkle is endorsed.
More Top Picks Why Sunglasses Indoors Make Light Sensitivity Worse
Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].