DuPage budget forums hardly a hot ticket

DuPage County's initial attempt to gather public input on its proposed $450 million budget drew little interest from the targeted audience.

But advocates for government transparency applauded the county for offering the forums nonetheless.

"It's less important in the first year how many people show up, but rather that it's promoted and more people have an opportunity to learn about the budget in a convenient and accessible way," said Laurence Msall, president of The Civic Federation, a Chicago-based nonpartisan government research group.

The county board's finance committee scheduled three forums over the past week, which wrapped up Tuesday in Addison. The others were held in Naperville and Downers Grove.

While county officials generally outnumbered taxpayers at the forums, finance committee Chairman Paul Fichtner said it was an important exercise.

"First, we want people to know what the county does and what kind of impact the county board has on their property taxes," Fichtner said. "If they took away one thing from the forums, I hope it was the number 3. As in 3 percent, because that's all the county takes out of their tax bill."

The audiences also received a crash course in some of the agencies the county helps finance, as several groups took the opportunity to appeal for additional funding or to promote the value of their work.

At Thursday's forum in Naperville, representatives from the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference, University of Illinois Extension, Choose DuPage, DuPage River/Salt Creek Work Group, Catholic Charities, The People's Resource Center and Naperville NCO Youth and Family Services all spoke about the work they do and how the money they receive from the county is spent.

Meanwhile, only one resident without ties to a specific program addressed county officials and it was more of a suggestion than a question. Naperville resident Ellen Burrows believes property tax assessments could be lowered if township government was folded into the county. She then praised the county's budget proposal.

"You're on the ball," Burrows said.

Msall said "institutionalizing" the forums will make them more popular.

"These types of forums should be held every time before the board takes a final vote on a significant expenditure," he said.

County board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom was not surprised by the lack of turnout.

"You'd see more people come out when you have a different budget than what we put out," he said. "Not too many people are concerned about the budget because it doesn't call for any major changes."

The proposed budget calls for modest spending on capital improvements, no employee raises and levying $100,000 less in property taxes as part of an effort to reduce spending without cutting services, Schillerstrom said.