Today’s technology is great. You can attend a county board meeting by watching video at your convenience. Some might argue that if you attend the meetings in person you could have input. But with DeKalb County Board meeting videos, available on their website, you can hear your county board member debate their position and make their recorded vote on issues important to you.
Take the budget for example. If you hover your pointer anywhere on the one hour and ten minute video below, embedded from the County website, a slider bar will appear along the bottom of the video. If you click and hold on the small circle on the left side of the slider bar a box appears that indicates a time. Drag your mouse to the right and release it at 28:00 minutes into the meeting. Now you can watch the floor debate on next year’s budget including the vote.
Bottom line is the board approved a $77.3 million operating budget for next year. To support that budget property owners will see an increase of $8.72 in property tax bills for the average homeowner in the county who saw their property value decline from $200,000 to $160,00. The almost 8 percent decline is about the same percentage of decline as in 2012.
County board member for District 7 (DeKalb), Misty Haji-Sheikh-D, said that the county’s auditors advised that the board had built up the reserve fund too high and the times certainly reflected the rainy day it was intended to serve. Revenue projections did not meet those of spending so about $900,000 was needed from the reserve fund to balance the budget.
Anita Turner-D (District 4), a teacher, reminded taxpayers that if they were worried about property taxes they should remember that their school district receives more than 63% of their property taxes.
County Administrator Gary Hanson, who was presented an award for his 30 years of service to county government, used part of his acceptance speech to urge the board to approve the budget. He invoked memories of JFK as he told the board that 1/3 of the total spending by the county was for human social services.
But ten Republican members of the board voted against the property tax levy portion of the budget. In fact those same ten voted to postpone budget approval until the December meeting in order to look one more time at reducing the levy.
Tracy Jones-R (District 1) said that DeKalb County Government has more than doubled over the last ten years. He pointed out that a taxpayer paying $1,000 as the county portion of their tax bill is now paying $1,450 for that same portion even though their property values have dropped considerably over the last five years.
Charles Foster-R (District 1) warned that the budget they were passing was unsustainable and the county needed a plan that addressed spending down the reserve fund.
Anthony Cvek-R (District 4) said the board had absolutely nothing to lose by postponing the decision until the December meeting. He said the taxpayers stood to lose if the budget was passed.
All twelve of the Democrats thought and voted differently, however, and they were joined by Republicans Jeff Whelan (District 10) and County Board Chairman Jeff Metzger (District 12) in rejecting the motion to postpone the vote and approve the property tax levy by a 14-10 measure.
The final vote to approve the budget was by a 15-8-1 vote. Riley Oncken-R (District 3) was appointed as conflict counsel for the 23rd Judicial Circuit in July 2013. The county budget provides financial support for that position so he voted to abstain.
District 3 representative Mark Pietrowski-D said the board should approve this year’s budget but look for cuts next year. According to Pietrowski’s Facebook page he is a Cubs fan.
In other action the county board acknowledged the 100th anniversary of the County Highway Department and District 9’s Paul Stoddard-D read a touching tribute to Lee Addleman from Waste Management who recently passed away and was instrumental in getting the landfill expansion approved.
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There you have it local legislators – a blueprint for ending the heavy-handed drug policy that has been crippling Dekalb County both financially and socially for decades. The power to change course it seems has always been in your hands.
Supported by a new policy directive for law enforcement, Dekalb County might determine that following the “spirit of the law” rather than the “letter of the law” is more appropriate for our community, and ignore the small time petty drug offender.
Use discretion and make the law work for Dekalb County instead of against it. Maintain the same policy regarding big time offenders, driving under the influence, or selling to minors.
Be prepared for resistance and grumbling from the entrenched bureaucracy that has become dependant on the small time non-violent drug offender to keep the current bloated justice system inflated to maximum occupancy.
The State of Illinois can still enforce by the “letter of the law” if they wish. Without a statewide initiative to change the law, there doesn’t appear to be any basis for challenging their authority. So let the State enforce the law as they deem appropriate. And let them fund it.
Following the “spirit of the law” rather than the “letter of the law” would simplify life except for those who chose a legal profession as their career choice. 😉
Unfunded mandates are a real problem for local taxing bodies. They don’t always come from state and federal sources, however. Most come from short sighted decisions and that includes the local units.
You know, I keep hearing rumors about this “mandate”, but have yet to see it codified anywhere. In any case, an unfunded mandate is obviously an unjustifiable one. What’s next, a mandate for stop-and-frisk?
Dekalb County has a drug court to lessen the impact of these onerous mandates. As far as I know the county has to enforce these state and federal laws.
The word mandate only appears once in the Illinois Controlled Substances Act(720 ILCS 570), for an unrelated issue, so it would be interesting to know where the actual mandate for cities or counties originates from.
Local police have wide discretion to apply or not apply various laws depending on each case. For example, an individual might be ticketed for driving 68 mph in 65 mph zone, or they might be ignored as the small time petty offender. If your teenager is caught drinking beer one day in the park, they might be ticketed for the offense or simply told to dump it out and go home.
So it’s difficult to see why local police would not have this type of discretion in drug cases.
Thanks for your input Stephen. We are in agreement that drug use should be viewed primarily as a public health issue. The question we need to ask is what happens when the representatives or residents of Dekalb County vote to change this through a majority vote at the County Board or by referendum. In other words, what is the political fallout going to be at the state and county level.
The question was directed towards you since I thought you might be more in tune with the local political scene, although someone else familiar with this area of government should be able to answer the question. The representatives or residents of Dekalb County might determine,
1) State of Illinois unfunded mandates regarding drug enforcement in Dekalb County are no longer financially sustainable or socially acceptable.
2) Dekalb County has followed the heavy-handed approach to drug enforcement for over 30 years with no evidence of achieving any measurable long-term impact on drug use or availability among the population.
3) Dekalb County would like to determine if a helping-hand approach focused on public health would be more effective, and address the need for better health education within the county.
4) Dekalb County has evidence to show that lack of employment, opportunity, and poverty are contributing factors for the spread of recreational drug use, and that a portion of funds previously allocated for criminal drug enforcement be redirected towards reducing these factors.
5) Dekalb County is not pro-drug or intending to completely legalize the use of recreational drugs, but to regulate their use similar to alcohol or tobacco.
Be it ordained …
And no, I’m not suggesting recreational drugs be made available at the local pharmacy. The intent would be a simple policy directive for law enforcement to ignore the majority of small time users and dealers that are currently filling our courtroom and jail. Go back to 1980 when the Average Daily Population of Dekalb County Jail was 20 people, instead of the 120+ people ADP we have today.
David, Our justice system is at the core of our county finances. Unfortunately, our legislators make these laws that are mandates for us. We have built a 15 million dollar court house expansion. Those cost will be dwarfed by the cost of staffing it. I would prefer to spend money on public health and mental health than unlimited money for our growing justice system. We fundamentally treat what should be public health issues with our criminal justice system. I agree with the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Dekalb County Total Net Assets (2003) – $73,523,244
Dekalb County Total Net Assets (2012) – $124,815,790
Poor, poor, Dekalb County needs to raise taxes again.
Dekalb County has a relatively weak EAV and a number of tax exempt or partially exempt institutions such as NIU and Kishwaukee Health System so that reduces our property taxes collected. The per capita income here is low compared to that of Eastern counties providing us with less income tax and sales tax revenue. To provide for schools, jails, roads, and other government services it is a challenge. I am assume that Michael Jordan built in a location similar to Oakbrook where they had a healthy tax base and a smaller demand for services. Regarding Dekalb County taxes, we are funding a growing justice system. Our legislators in Washington and Springfield seemingly can’t pass enough new criminal penalties, mandatory sentences, and to expand the “war on illegal drugs.” The Illinois criminal code has doubled in 20 years. Our politicians don’t want to be thought of as “soft on crime.” I agree with U.S. Attorney Eric Holder that our justice system is “broken in many ways” and “That incarceration at all levels has been ineffective and unsustainable.” Our jails have become our default mental health facilities as resources go to the justice system instead of mental health and drug treatment. Is this good public policy? Dekalb County government spends 19.5 million dollars on our sheriff’s department, jail, and our court. Our total property tax levey is 20.9 million dollars. We are also in a recession and that stresses all governmental budgets due to the lack of new construction.
Stephen, what do you think would happen if Dekalb County voted to end the drug war – to end the unfunded mandates?
Michael Jordan’s $29,000,000 mansion is up for auction next month. He paid $178,900 in 2012 for property taxes. Do the math, what percentage of $29,000,000 is $178,900? I get .6169%. My property taxes for 2012 were $3707 for a house that would probably sell for around $90,000. Do the math, what percentage is $3707 of $90,000? I get 4.119%. If Michael Jordan’s mansion was in DeKalb and he paid 4.119% of the mansion’s value for property taxes, he would pay $1,104,510 in property taxes. If I paid .6169% of the house’s value in property taxes, I would pay $555.
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I know Mac you think all government is bad. It is easy to be a know it all critic. I find your sarcastic comment regarding the death of Lee Addleman of Waste Management very inappropriate and offensive. You can rail about the wisdom of the landfill expansion but making that sort of comment is sick.