DuPage County tax no one wanted rejected

This was one ballot issue where the adage "every vote counts" didn't apply.

DuPage County voters appeared likely Tuesday to soundly reject a quarter percentage point sales tax increase. But even if they had approved it, county board members said they would have voted to repeal it.

That's because the $40 million windfall the increase would have generated is no longer necessary. Instead, the state legislature approved a similar tax hike as part of the recent mass transit bailout.

With nearly 60 percent of results unofficially tallied, almost 77 percent of the voters rejected the referendum question.

The additional funds were needed to stave off job and programming cuts to struggling public safety departments. Nearly 250 jobs were on the chopping block, county officials said. Programs at the county health department and museum would also have been affected.

County board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom first pushed for the ballot question, but then sought relief from the state legislature. He went to Springfield lobbying legislators to include an extra quarter percentage point increase to the collar counties' sales tax prior to the transit bailout vote last month. When legislators approved his proposal, Tuesday's DuPage ballot question became moot.

Schillerstrom and other county officials who had lobbied for voter support of the tax hike then began urging voters to reject it.

Before the solution was found in Springfield, DuPage County's top public safety leaders had warned decreased revenues would mean increased crime.

They said proposed staff losses would have had a domino effect translating into longer lines at the courthouse and circuit clerk's office, delays in criminal cases getting to trial, insufficient sheriff's police and reduced monitoring of released felons.

Sheriff John Zaruba said his department already was down 45 people due to layoffs and employees leaving because of fears of benefit cuts and minimal raises.

State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said there are 72 assistant state's attorneys on his staff but according to national standards there should be 93. And Circuit Court Clerk Chris Kachiroubas noted that his staff is down by 17 positions. He warned more layoffs would result in dissatisfied customers.