AFSCME Council 31, which represents several county workers, including attorneys at the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, is pitching commissioners on tax increases or borrowing to prevent layoffs as a result of the block of the county’s sweetened beverage tax. Those proposals include bumping up existing sales tax, cigarette tax, alcohol tax, hotel tax (1% increase), amusement (doubling to 6%), or parking taxes–or instituting a new $11 per employee head tax at employers with more than 50 workers.