McHenry Co. explores court fee to fund child advocacy center

It may not qualify as reason for speeding or any other scofflaw behavior, but McHenry County leaders are finding a way to make some good out of some residents' bad acts.

County board members are expected to vote next month on a proposal to add a $5 or $10 fee for every felony, misdemeanor or traffic conviction or supervision order, then use those funds to help the Child Advocacy Center of McHenry County.

The agency, created in 1999, provides a safe, kid-friendly location where victims of child sexual abuse can receive counseling and meet with trained interviewers while police and prosecutors look on via closed-circuit television. The interviews are recorded, preventing the victim from having to recount the abuse several times to several different people.

Since its inception, the center has survived on a mixture of government funding, grants and private donations. But with federal spending cuts looming and grants undependable, its leaders and county officials have been seeking a more stable revenue stream.

"This is too important to leave it up to bake sales and other fundraisers," said Nick Provenzano, chairman of the county board's Law and Justice Committee. "We need to step up and find a stable funding mechanism."

That mechanism appears to be a recently enacted state law allowing counties to tack a $5 to $30 fee onto a convicted defendant's court costs for child advocacy center funding. The $5 add-on under consideration by McHenry County could raise as much as $200,000 a year.

So far, Kane, DuPage and Cook counties have enacted similar measures.

"These extra funds will help us stay here and continue to provide these services," said advocacy center Director James Wiegand. "Without it, we're looking at some serious financial concerns next year."

Officials considered other funding options, including a tax-increase referendum, for the center, but decided that justice calls for criminal offenders to foot the bill.

"It's important that people who choose to participate in the criminal justice system fund this, and not the law-abiding citizens," Provenzano said.