Attorneys representing Cook County and retail merchants gathered again in Judge Daniel Kubasiak’s courtroom Friday afternoon to discuss whether the county’s beverage tax was applied uniformly and reasonably administered. Comm. Richard Boykin (D-1), who has called the tax “regressive”, used the day’s proceedings to again call the budget fallout from the stalled beverage tax collection and subsequent layoffs a “manufactured crisis” by the Preckwinkle administration.