DuPage County lays out doomsday budget cuts

Public safety, health, the environment and DuPage County culture were placed in a budgetary guillotine today as the casualties of more than 200 proposed layoffs were detailed.

County board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom's budget eliminates emergency dental care for children, women's health services and closes the DuPage County Museum and University of Illinois extension service.

On the environmental side, there are no new tax-funded projects in the budget to address stormwater management. Money for the household hazardous waste program and the regional recycling center in Naperville are also gone.

The DuPage County Sheriff's office would see the bulk of the pink slips with the loss of about 100 employees.

"If the county board passes this budget, they have failed in their responsibility to protect the public," said Sheriff John Zaruba in a written statement. "The consequences of this budget proposal are unconscionable."

The sheriff's department would lose about 15 percent of its employees in the plan. Other departments will see fewer layoffs, but similar impacts to service.

For instance, layoffs in the human and psychological services departments will leave only about 30 people to perform all the daily functions.

"Government should cut fat -- we have," Schillerstrom said. "Government shouldn't cut muscle -- we must. This budget may change people's ideas about our county."

Schillerstrom blamed Springfield lawmakers for failing to provide a new cigarette tax to the county that would've negated the need to lay off 235 employees.

The Civic Federation, a non-partisan tax watchdog group, praised Schillerstrom for making necessary cuts at a time when there isn't enough money to fund everything the county's done up until now. However, Laurence Msall, president of the federation, said part of the reason the county is in trouble is because it hasn't implemented a long-term strategic plan to address lean financial times.

"The chairman is really left with no other reasonable choice now but to reduce spending," Msall said.

Another possible long-term answer, Schillerstrom said, would involve asking voters for some form of tax increase to fund the eliminated positions.

However, the county's fiscal year begins Dec. 1. The earliest the county could ask voters for more money would be Feb. 5. Even if voters approved a tax increase then, the money wouldn't come in until midway through the fiscal year.

Using savings is not an option. The layoffs will actually cost the county $10.5 million in unemployment and severance benefits in the short term. That money will come from the county's savings.

Schillerstrom and the county board will spend the next few weeks looking for ways to mitigate the impact of the proposed cuts.

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