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State eyes local share of income taxes By DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com Local governments could lose thousands of dollars if the state decides to roll back their share of income tax revenue. Officials in DeKalb and Sycamore expect services would be affected depending on how much money they lose from the state capping the Local Government Distributive Fund. Income tax revenue from the state
is deposited into this fund, which is then dispersed to local cities on a per capita basis. If the General Assembly decides to cap revenue at 2012 levels, the city of DeKalb could lose between $232,468 and $504,413. Sycamore could lose between $92,850 and $201,468. Genoa could lose between $27,522 and $59,719. “We’ve been trying to grow our public safety efforts,” said DeKalb Assistant City Manager Rudy Espir-
itu. “This would adversely impact those efforts.” Espiritu said the city has taken numerous steps to reduce its operating costs and staff expenditures since 2008, with city staff levels dropping 20 percent since then. Sycamore City Manager Brian Gregory also was worried about how the city’s services would be affected.
What’s at stake The state has proposed rolling back municipalities’ share of the Local Government Distributive Fund to 2012 levels. The state is projecting municipalities to lose $5.30 a resident; the Illinois Municipal League is projecting them to lose $11.50 a resident. Here’s how much local governments
could lose, using both projections and Census 2010 population figures. DeKalb: $232,468 to $504,413 Sycamore: $92,850 to $201,468 Genoa: $27,522 to $59,719 Cortland: $22,631 to $49,105 Malta: $6,169 to $13,386
See TAXES, page A9
AGRICULTURE SPOTLIGHT
PRIMED FOR PLANTING
Traditional Catholics upset with Pope’s actions Francis disregards church law, washes feet of Muslim By NICOLE WINFIELD The Associated Press
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
Mike Schweitzer begins attaching a field sprayer to a tractor Wednesday while preparing for the upcoming planting season in Malta.
County farmers ready for busy spring after cold winter By STEPHANIE HICKMAN
DeKalb County farming statistics
shickman@shawmedia.com Steve Bemis is looking forward to working 16-hour days again. In a few weeks, farmers across DeKalb County will be preparing their fields and planting crops from sunrise to sunset. “It gets pretty hectic in the spring,” Bemis said. “But that’s good. We like to be hectic. It means we’re getting our work done.” Bemis, who grows corn and soybeans, said he hopes the cooler conditions don’t affect his planting season too much. Farming more than 2,600 acres of land about five miles southwest of DeKalb with his father, Bemis said he would like to start planting the second week in April and have all his corn planted by the first week in May.
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
= Schweitzer lowers a wire harness down from the cab of his tractor to later attach to his field sprayer. He calls the third week in May “drop-dead day,” or the time he switches from planting corn to soybeans, which he said can handle a later planting. His operation plants 90 per-
cent corn and 10 percent beans, and he hopes the weather will allow him to keep it that way this year.
• 407,040 acres of land in county, about 90 percent is farmland • 2,014 total farms in county on 370,772 acres • Average size farming operation: 1,166 acres • 950 farmers and 2,665 land owners generate about $447 million in sales • Average corn yield in 2012: 159 bushels an acre • Average annual value of corn: $260 million • Average soybean yield in 2012: 51 bushels an acre • Average annual value of soybeans: $66 million
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has won over many hearts and minds with his simple style and focus on serving the world’s poorest, but he has devastated traditionalist Catholics who adored his predecessor, Benedict XVI, for restoring much of the traditional pomp to the papacy. Francis’ decision to disregard church law and wash the feet of two girls – a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic – during a Holy Thursday ritual has become something of the final straw, evidence that Francis has little or Pope Francis no interest in one of the key priorities of Benedict’s papacy: reviving the pre-Vatican II traditions of the Catholic Church. One of the most-read traditionalist blogs, Rorate Caeli, reacted to the foot-washing ceremony by declaring the death of Benedict’s eight-year project to correct what he considered the botched interpretations of the Second Vatican Council’s modernizing reforms. “The official end of the reform of the reform – by example,” “Rorate Caeli” lamented in its report on Francis’ Holy Thursday ritual. A like-minded commentator in Francis’ native Argentina, Marcelo Gonzalez at International Catholic Panorama, reacted to Francis’ election with this phrase: “The Horror.” Gonzalez’s beef? While serving as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis’ efforts to revive the old Latin Mass so dear to Benedict and traditionalists were “nonexistent.” The night he was chosen pope, March 13, Francis emerged from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica without the ermine-rimmed red velvet cape, or mozzetta, used by popes past for official duties, wearing instead the simple white cassock of the papacy.
Source: dekalbfarmbureau.org
See PLANTING, page A9
See POPE, page A9
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