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County panel OKs $90M budget Finance committee’s proposal calls for some fee increases, but no layoffs By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The DeKalb County Board finance committee approved a $90.8 million county budget plan Wednesday that dips into reserves but spares jobs. “The county finance committee set a goal not to exceed utilizing $400,000 in fund balance reserves. And based on a number of measures of combined expenditure reductions and revenue proposals, we
were able to meet that,” said Pete Stefan, county finance director. The spending plan includes some health department and court-related fee increases. The county law library filing fee will jump from the current $10 to $21. According to the budget proposal, the increase would bring an extra $65,000 to the county. Several departments wanted to hire or make other staff changes but the requests were denied, mostly because add-
ing personnel or increasing current workers’ hours would likely have meant using more reserves, something Stefan said officials didn’t want to do. The county currently has about 530 full-time employees, officials said. Among the hiring requests, the public defender’s office wanted to hire another attorney at a cost to the county of $94,000. Instead, $50,000 was budgeted to contract with an attorney without providing county-funded benefits.
“We knew it was going to be a hard budget to come up with,” said Paul Stoddard, D-9th District, chairman of the finance committee. “We’ve been very good, very conservative about saving money for rainy days. The rainy season’s lasted longer than we’ve hoped, and we’re getting to the point where the budget’s difficult.” However, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office will continue to hire more corrections officers. Two will have been
Rauner wins labor fight; state House veto override fails
hired this year, and the 2016 budget will allow for four additional corrections officers to be hired. The hires will be paid with additional money expected to come from the county’s landfill agreement with Waste Management, according to the budget plans. The county plans to spend more in 2016 than in the current fiscal year, mostly because of the jail expansion project scheduled to start in the spring. The county expects to spend more than $11 million
on the project in fiscal 2016. “One of our main goals is to [in 2017] take no money out of the reserves, and then after that, start putting money back into the reserves. This is part of that process,” said County Board Chairman Mark Pietrowski Jr., D-3rd District. “Our whole goal was to protect as many jobs as we can, but also reduce our budget and maintain services.” He expects the full board to pass the budget at its Sept. 16 meeting.
OFFERING A HELPING HAND
By JOHN O’CONNOR The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Bruce Rauner won a victory over a Democratic majority Wednesday when the Illinois House failed to override his veto of legislation designed to prevent a strike or lockout if union contract negotiations break down. Democrats under House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago voted 68-34 to reverse Rauner’s rejection of the measure that would give an independent arbitrator power to decide who wins if there’s an impasse in negotiations between the administration and the state’s largest employee union. To become law, the legislation needed a three-fifths majority of 71 votes. The vote marked a key showdown between the General Assembly’s pro-union majority and the first-year Republican governor they fear wants to smash organized labor. The Senate voted Gov. Bruce to overturn the veto last month, Rauner so a House override would have made it law. Rauner said he hopes the vote “marks the beginning of serious negotiations” in a summer-long dispute over the budget, which should have taken effect July 1. “While House members chose to help us avoid digging a deeper financial hole, we still have a lot of work to do and time is of the essence,” Rauner said in a statement after the vote. Under the proposal, either side would have been able to call for an independent arbitrator and ostensibly prohibit a strike or worker lockout. Democrats had argued that arbitration offered moderation to tense talks and would prohibit the extremes of picket lines or a government shutdown. The GOP argued it would take away from the taxpayer-elected governor the ability to decide how much the state can afford to pay its employees. Rauner, who campaigned on and continues to push plans to curb labor’s influence, has promised there will be no lockout. But the union can’t shake statements the former private equity investor made during his 2014 campaign that he would welcome a government shutdown, if necessary, to get the debt-riddled state back in fiscal shape. “The governor’s ferocious and false attacks on this moderate and responsible bill clearly show he wants conflict, not compromise,” Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan said in a statement.
Mary Beth Nolan – mnolan@shawmedia.com
Gavin Crosby visits with Lynn Davis (left) and Deana Cada, both of Sycamore, during an open house Saturday at Walnut Grove Vocational Farm in Kirkland. Crosby worked on projects at the farm.
Growing opportunities
Walnut Grove Vocational Farm, Community Gardens join forces to help individuals with disabilities develop life skills By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Gene Heinsohn is working to create better opportunities for his son and others with developmental disabilities who have few resources after they age out of the public school system. Heinsohn’s son, Scott, 21, has Down syndrome, a type of developmental disability. Heinsohn was concerned about what would happen when his son “aged out” of the transitional education system. People with special needs often go to tran-
sition programs after leaving public schools to learn work, interpersonal, educational and social skills. Typically, the cutoff age for those programs is 22. After that, many services disappear, Heinsohn said. “It’s like they fall off the edge of the world,” he said. Heinsohn is working to make sure that doesn’t happen. He owns the 280-acre Walnut Grove Vocational Farm in Kirkland. He hopes to offer a space where people can learn work skills – such as gardening, lawn maintenance, livestock care and horticulture – that they can bring back to their own neighbor-
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hoods to earn money, develop a sense of purpose and become more self-sufficient. “[Scott] has helped with everything,” Heinsohn said. “He’s like my guinea pig. … He comes out and works with me. Once in a while we have his friends come and do the same. We want to make this an enjoyable place.” DeKalb County Community Gardens has taken the vocational farm program under its wing, Heinsohn said. DCCG is a nonprofit organization that focuses on increasing access
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