Last year the non-partisan Civic Federation was critical about the lack of transparency in DuPage’s budget and warned the county not to continue relying on increased property taxes (pdf) - but accepted the county budget. This year, with DuPage again relying on property tax increases in a budget lacking transparency, the organization “cautions against any future policy of relying on property tax increases as the first line of attack for balancing the budget, and urges the County… to improve its budget transparency (pdf).”
According to the report, while the organization supports the budget and believes attempts are being made to rein in expenses,
“The Federation expressed disappointment, however, that the [2007] budget contained the maximum property tax increase allowed under the tax cap law for the second consecutive year.
The Federation was also disappointed by the lack of transparency in the budget document, which makes meaningful public input and understanding extremely difficult. The Civic Federation also recommends that the Chairman [Robert Schillerstrom] release a final executive budget rather than a tentative and incomplete financial plan that may change substantially during negotiations between elected officials and the Chairman. ‘A more user-friendly budget document would both raise the quality and relevance of public commentary and demonstrate to County residents that their government takes public input seriously,’ said [Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation].”
I couldn’t agree more with the call to stop property tax increases and increase the transparency of the budget to allow more meaningful input. I hope DuPage County will do better next year.
The Federation also found that there were “serious financial challenges” to the county’s fiscal health and without “serious reform” DuPage taxpayers can anticipate “continuous property tax increases for the foreseeable future and an expanding burden.” They offer three suggestions to reform the system: consolidation of government operations to improve efficiency and accountability, consideration of alternative operating structures for the Convalescent Center, and reducing the number of elected officials in county government to reduce “duplication of functions and a lack of coordination among departments and agencies” and increase the accountability of officials.
Interestingly, reducing the number of elected officials was also a suggestion of some of the Democratic candidates seeking office this past election.
We keep hearing (and I keep offering) the same criticisms over and over - we need to increase DuPage government transparency and accountability, we need to decrease DuPage property taxes, and we need to foster a system that permits more meaningful input from DuPage taxpayers. It’s also commonsense and good business practice to have both a strategic plan (DuPage is still working on one from last year according to the Civic Federation) for long-term planning and a formalized long-term fiscal plan - in both cases this would help DuPage anticipate and improve its fiscal future. I hope DuPage County officials are listening to the criticism of this independent, non-partisan group - and I hope they start acting on more of these recommendations. DuPage can do better - and we should.
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