For the first time in several years, DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom has good news about the county’s financial future. 

Addressing the board Tuesday, Schillerstrom offered a balanced plan for 2009 that would increase spending by 12 percent and restore many programs and services that were cut or reduced in previous years. Overall, the budget calls for spending about $462 million in the coming fiscal year, which begins Dec. 1, without raising property taxes.

When he made his proposal last October for the 2008 county budget, Schillerstrom called for hundreds of layoffs and a large reduction in spending. The board approved the cuts, but a sales tax increase by the state legislature prevented them from going into effect.

Despite the restorations, the proposed 2009 budget is still about 1.5 percent less than in 2004, when the County Board began cutting back to combat rising costs and stagnant revenue.

A highlight of the proposal is a program Schillerstrom dubbed DuPage 2013, a five-year, $220 million plan to improve and rebuild local infrastructure.

With the legislature’s efforts to pass a capital bill stalled, Schillerstrom suggested devoting $12 million next year to a local program to address traffic congestion and aging county facilities.

“The failure of leadership at the very top of our state has denied passage of a capital bill, which would allow for needed and necessary infrastructure improvements throughout DuPage County, our region and our state,” Schillerstrom said. “We need a capital plan. We cannot wait for personalities and politics to eventually do what is right.” 

The county would issue $220 million in bonds to pay for the projects, which include adding additional lanes to three sections of 75th Street.

In January — after lobbying from Schillerstrom and with the support of three DuPage state senators — the General Assembly approved a half-cent sales tax increase. One quarter cent of the new tax is used to fund Chicago area mass transit, while the other quarter cent goes to the county to pay for transportation projects and public-safety needs.

The increase kicked in April 1 and spared the county from having to make most of the proposed cuts.

Fred Backfield, the county’s chief financial officer, said the new tax is expected to bring in about $48 million in revenue for DuPage in the coming year. Despite the struggling economy, overall sales tax revenue is expected to grow by about 2.5 percent next year, he said.

Schillerstrom’s proposal calls for spending $96 million on public safety, including the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices.

The proposal would set aside $3.4 million to allow Sheriff John Zaruba to hire more deputies to patrol the streets and staff the County Jail. The money would also be used to put salaries on par with other area law enforcement agencies.

The chairman also proposed two programs to reduce the inmate population at the jail.

He said he wants to restore the sheriff’s work alternative program, known as SWAP, which is an alternative to jail time for low-risk offenders.

Schillerstrom also suggested creating a pre-trial bond supervision program to keep defendants charged with nonviolent crimes out of jail while they await their day in court. The Department of Probation and Court Services has developed the program, which is modeled after a similar one in Lake County.

The department would receive 14 additional employees to staff the program, according to the chairman’s plan.

Schillerstrom also called for devoting county funds to a number of health, human service, environmental and economic development programs.

Patrick O’Shea, R-2nd District, of Lombard, chairman of the board’s Finance Committee, said Schillerstrom’s proposed budget addresses many of the areas that were on the chopping block last year.

“It’s an aggressive budget,” O’Shea said, “but it’s a budget we had to be aggressive in because of what happened last year, which is something I don’t think will happen again.”

Board member Jim Zay, R-6th District, of Carol Stream said the budget uses the new sales tax revenue judiciously.

“I think it’s very conservative,” Zay said. “It addresses our needs and doesn’t go beyond."

The County Board has until Nov. 30 to approve a budget for 2009, but unlike last year, Schillerstrom said he doesn’t think this plan will require 11th-hour approval.

“If ever a budget is going to go through early, this is it,” he said.

See Schillerstrom's complete budget speech

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