DuPage Budget Debacle - What Others Are Saying…And What About Long-Term Planning?

[Cross-Posted at WurfWhile.com]

The current budget proposal is to cut about 10% of the DuPage County government workforce, about 235 people, as part of a plan to cut over $50 million. That means hundreds of people, who worked hard and did their job, now will lose their job through no fault of their own. It also means a lot to other DuPage residents, who will face cuts that threaten safety and key government functions. It should have never gotten to this. Many people, many of them Democrats like me, have railed about county mismanagement for years and advocated more fiscal responsibility. Now that disaster has struck on the all-Republican watch, it seems appropriate to me to permit office holders to describe what they will preside over - and in many cases what they've created. Warning to readers and residents - you may find the following material deeply offensive, and you should.

What Others Are Saying About The DuPage Budget Debacle (Alphabetically By Last Name)

DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett denies what the county board tells him is true, according to the Daily Herald, saying layoffs are not an option for the criminal justice system that stands to face almost 200 lost jobs. "It would mean not even doing the bare minimum that is required by law.... Probation will become a joke. The youth home will shut down. Courtrooms will have to be shut down because we can't staff them."

Chief Judge Ann Jorgensen in the Chicago Tribune, "'There won't be enough assistant state's attorneys to prosecute cases; there won't be enough public defenders to represent indigent defendants'.... Jorgensen said probation officers are already spread so thinly that further staff cuts will prevent them from providing services and monitoring that are designed to steer convicted criminals away from a life of crime. 'We have the finest probation officers in the state of Illinois, but I have already asked them to do more and more with less and less.'"

DuPage County Board member Linda Kurzawa, Board President of the DuPage County Board of Health, in the Naperville Sun said, "department services are severely threatened and the Convalescent Center is facing 'the beginning of the end.... The cuts will mean the loss of breast and cervical cancer screenings, hands-on health programs and a large scale-back if not elimination of our dental program.'"

DuPage County Board Chair Robert Schillerstrom in the Chicago Tribune, "'This is not a budget I want. It is not a budget you want.... It is not a budget that will meet the needs of DuPage County or our constituents. ... [The proposed budget cuts] are deep and they are real, and they will affect every department across our county.'" And in the Daily Herald, Chairman Schillerstrom is quoted saying, "Government should cut fat - we have.... Government shouldn't cut muscle - we must. This budget may change people's ideas about our county."

Coroner Pete Siekmann in the Daily Herald, "Siekmann said staff cuts to his office would translate to delayed autopsies and possibly the closing of the coroner's office on weekends. 'People aren't going to quit dying.... If people die in the hospital or their residence we can't just let them lay. We need to respond.'"

Sheriff John Zaruba in the Daily Herald, "'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.'" And in the Chicago Tribune, Sheriff Zaruba is quoted saying, "This office has already been reduced to 1980s staffing levels. ... Crime prevention, alternative sentencing and anti-recidivism programs have been eliminated.... I cannot and will not stand by and let cuts of this magnitude stand. The safety of our citizens is not negotiable."

What About That Long-Term Planning?

Laurence Msall, president of The Civic Federation, told the Daily Herald that "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." But wait, don't we have a strategic plan - a "roadmap" of where we're headed? Yes, we recently got one - it's here. So why are we in this mess? Well, the "roadmap" is apparently crap (to put it politely). According to the Naperville Sun, before this so-called "roadmap," "[i]n the 20 years that Robert Schillerstrom has been with the county, DuPage has not had a strategic plan." Just as damning, with Schillerstrom counted, ten of the 19 members of the DuPage County Board, a majority, have served at least eight years (and some around two decades). Yet these supposedly business-oriented county board members never thought, until just recently, that a strategic plan was a priority - and then they failed to create and follow a good one.

Conclusion

Now, of course, it's probably too late for a good, short-term fix. Chairman Schillerstrom and the county board want to blame the problem on not getting the $1 a pack cigarette tax through Springfield, but as the Chicago Tribune notes today, "Even that appears to be insufficient to roll back the cuts proposed by Schillerstrom because it would raise an estimated $25 million a year for the county when the cuts total $52 million."

Put simply, the DuPage County Board is responsible for the county budget - and it has lost control. Public safety and crucial government services will likely suffer. Robert Schillerstrom and the DuPage County Board have totally failed to plan for the future - and they've totally failed us. When campaign season comes, and everyone's making promises about being fiscally responsible and cutting taxes and running on their record, or running with the support of incumbents, you need to think about this and think hard. Decades of total Republican control of the DuPage County Board have led to this result. If you like what you see, vote for them. If you believe we need a change, then vote Democrat. As far as I'm concerned, we need big change. It can't come soon enough.