Kane County state's attorney push for raises to fuel new tax discussion

Kane County State's Attorney Jamie Mosser is tired of the lawyers on her staff working second jobs as Uber drivers to make ends meet.

She's ratcheting up the pressure on the county board to increase the pay for her staff, a move that will renew debate about possible tax increases.

Mosser pressed the county board's labor management committee in a series of recent meetings to push through immediate raises for her staff. She also wants to see a long-term plan put in place to ensure the salaries of her attorneys stay competitive with those in neighboring counties.

"I understand every single time somebody says, 'I'm going to raise your taxes,' that affects our entire community," Mosser told the committee. "For the past two years, you've seen me come back, time after time, to talk about the pay disparity we have. The need for these individuals is now. Right now."

The resignation of Michelle Niermann, chief of the state's attorney's civil division, helps make the point, Mosser said. Niermann stepped down this week for a better-paying job. She'd been with the county since 1995.

"I'm not only going to lose them because of money; I'm going to lose them because I am no longer somebody they believe in," Mosser said of staff departures. "The unions come in, and there are equity raises that happen. My employees are not in a union. I am that union for them. Do I expect in a month we will have all this money? I do not. But I want the process to get started."

That process, in the short term, is deciding where the $900,000 the county board put into the current budget for equity raises will go. The county's human resources department is reviewing all 26 government departments to find where the greatest pay disparities are and make those offices and employees the priority for that money.

A preliminary estimate indicated as much as $262,000 of the $900,000 could go to Mosser's office. The full study will conclude in April.

That $262,000 would be only a drop in the bucket compared to the overall money the county needs to fund the courts and the state's attorney and sheriff's offices in the long term.

Officials from those departments asked for $5 million in new expenses for the current budget year. And they pushed for either a doubling of the county's gas tax or a new retail sales tax, or both, to fund long-term costs, including new employees and raises.

With the entire county board on the election ballot last November, all discussion of any new taxes died out. Even with some breathing room after the election, Mosser's fellow Democrats on the county board indicated they will not make any quick decisions with the $900,000.

Board member Myrna Molia pointed out that the budget for Mosser's office was $5.7 million in 2020 but $10.16 million in the current year.

"We also have the 1,300 other (county) employees we have to take into consideration," Molina said. "I'm against using those funds for one particular department. I think we are able to find a compromise for everybody."

Likewise, county board Chair Corinne Pierog said the time to discuss tax increases and new taxes is coming, but not until after the human resources study is done.

Pierog also pointed to the ultimate fate of the justice reforms called for by the state's SAFE-T Act as a big driver in the need for new taxes. The act remains tied up in lawsuits and legislative corrections.

"I understand your frustration because you need it now," Pierog told Mosser. "I beg you to have patience. I don't want to have to make cuts to other departments to satisfy this need."

The labor management committee will continue the discussion about raises and tax increases at its April meeting.