“You know, it’s hard to figure out what’s going on,” Preckwinkle said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s hard to know how much of this is real and how much of it is smoke and mirrors.”

Early on Wednesday, Stroger proposed an ordinance that would lower the Cook County sales tax a quarter of a percent, a partial repeal of 2008's one percent sales tax hike, which the board president supported. If passed, Stroger's sales tax reduction would take effect on January 1, 2010.

Preckwinkle, a likely candidate in the upcoming 2010 election for the top seat on the county board, questioned the current president’s motivations.

“It’s pretty unusual that you make a case that you desperately need something, and then within months of it going into effect you decide you didn’t need it after all,” she said, referring to Stroger’s previous claims that without the full one percent tax increase the county would not be able to balance its budget, necessitating a cut in vital services like health care and public safety.

“I hope it reflects bad projections rather than simply the political reality that people are really hostile toward the substantial boost in sales taxes,” Preckwinkle said.

In reaction to the tax bump, several northern Cook County townships voted in April on a referendum to secede from the county, a largely symbolic gesture of protest toward Stroger’s sales tax increases.

On Thursday afternoon, President Stroger responded to Alderman Preckwinkle’s implications that he had either  mishandled the county budget or was attempting to placate angry voters.

“When we passed the budget in February we used what we had,” Stroger said over the phone. “And after discussions with the state and federal government later in the year we found out that we had more money. That gave us the ability to say that we can roll back the sales tax.”

Despite such justifications, many consider Stroger’s tax repeal a political ploy meant to stanch the flow of criticism streaming into the president’s office.

One critic is Laurence Msall, 47, president of the Civic Federation of Chicago, a political watchdog group.

“It’s a gimmick that doesn’t go far enough,” Msall said Thursday. “It’s as if you ran over someone’s fence with your car and offered to repair 25 percent of the damage.”

Msall believes that last year’s one percent sales tax hike should be repealed in its entirety, and views Wednesday's proposal as proof that the county went too far.

“It’s not tied to any comprehensive financial plan,” Msall said of the tax reduction, “so it’s hard to view it as anything but a gimmick. This is a government that appears to operate with no financial planning and no forethought.”

Sitting forward at a large square table in her 4^th Ward headquarters on Wednesday, Alderman Preckwinkle was more judicious than Msall in her criticisms of Stroger’s tax ordinance.

“Sometimes when you’re in government you have to do difficult but necessary things,” she said. “But it’s unclear whether raising the sales tax last year was difficult and necessary if as soon as it goes into effect you’re proposing to ratchet it back.”