Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle is now pushing for a 1 percent sales tax increase -- something she was adamantly against when she ran for office in 2010. If such an increase were passed, it would likely go into effect in 2016, Cook County Commissioner Joan Patricia Murphy told the Chicago Sun-Times. 

"President Preckwinkle has consistently said that FY16 will be a particularly challenging budget year for a number of reasons, not least of which is the failure of Springfield to act on the County's proposed pension legislation," Preckwinkle spokesman Frank Shuftan said in a statement to the newspaper. "Our finance team is hard at work looking at a number of scenarios for coping with this difficult situation, and we expect to present a plan to our Board of Commissioners shortly."

Preckwinkle campaigned back in 2010 to roll back a penny on the dollar sales tax increase passed by former Cook Co. Pres. Todd Stroger in 2008. The increase was phased out by 2013, but now an increase is back on the table, although the issue hasn't been discussed with Cook Co. commissioners. They could possibly take up such a proposal early next week.

Stay tuned.