County officials must share budget pain

In the end, it probably would have taken a fairy godmother to bail DuPage County out of its budget crisis. But maybe she was too busy with other things to waste time waving her wand in Springfield to give the county a new cigarette tax. And now that there's no hope of tobacco tax money filling in the county's $20 million budget hole, the doomsday DuPage County has been predicting has dawned.

DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said programs must be cut and more than 200 employees could lose their jobs. Many to be laid off work in public safety.

This has brought grim predictions of grave setbacks in prosecuting criminals and fighting crime from DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett and DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba. This can't be allowed to happen, though Birkett and Zaruba were not very vocal in lobbying for a cigarette tax that would have provided millions in public safety dollars.

But to their credit, they have offered a way to prevent deep budget cuts. Go to taxpayers with a request for approval of a quarter-point increase in the county sales tax on nonessential goods and services. Not a bad idea. A sales tax is more a progressive tax, is easy to collect and provides a steady stream of income. But we, like voters, will wait for the details. And even if voters agree to any sales tax hike on the ballot in February, it would come too late to end the crisis at hand.

We do know this. Before one new dime is collected, or one person is laid off, or health care for children and women is eliminated, or cultural, environmental and education programs are cut, county executives who have failed to find a way out of this fiscal mess must make a sacrifice of their own. The DuPage County Board and its chairman must cut perks and generous pensions and salaries instead of merely discussing the possibility.

They knew for a long time that this fiscal crisis was coming. They knew it when they kept cutting property taxes. A commendable move, certainly, but not at the point where it became financially unwise to do so.

They knew it when they started running out of all that money they squeezed out of the DuPage Water Commission. They knew that was only a temporary fiscal fix. So what did they decide was the best next step? Seeking a cigarette tax that had to be approved by two houses of the legislature and a governor on record as opposing tax hikes. Why not have asserted local control over finances by looking for voter approval of a sales tax hike before the budget crisis, or even a referendum on home rule?

And for all this, board members believe they are earning their yearly salary of $48,620 -- up from $27,717 annually 10 years ago and set to increase to $53,645 in three years. And is the board chairman OK with his yearly pay of $110,150, rising to $121,540 by 2010? Keep in mind this compensation doesn't include income from committee bonuses, and later, in retirement, from a lucrative pension package.

People are going to be hurt by this budget crisis. The county board and its chairman shouldn't be spared the pain.