DuPage eyes $432M budget savings
By Susan Frick Carlman scarlman@stmedianetwork.com September 13, 2012 6:02PM
DuPage County Chair Dan Cronin, speaks at his Q&A with the DuPage United Delegated Assembly in West Chicago on Thursday. Terence Guider-Shaw~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: October 15, 2012 9:28AM
DuPage County once again is cutting costs, and authorities aren’t too shy to boast about it a little.
“Folks in DuPage are pretty humble,” County Board Chairman Dan Cronin said in his annual budget address this week. “I think we’re not prone to brag about success — but today we will make a brief exception.”
The chairman’s $431.8 million fiscal blueprint is less than 1 percent smaller than the spending plan he presented a year ago, but it represents a savings of more than $8 million relative to the sum the county has actually spent in fiscal 2012.
Payroll expenses next year will reflect continuing staff reductions if the County Board approves the proposal. Seven full-time positions will be taken out of the budget, expanding on the 33 eliminated in fiscal 2012. The head count would total 2,227, a decrease of 99 jobs since the tally peaked in 2010.
Among the other highlights of the draft spending plan is $93 million for infrastructure work, including flood prevention and dam modification projects plus road widening and resurfacing and bike trails. More than one-third of the expense will be funded with federal stimulus finds received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Recovery Zone Facility Bonds program. State money is expected to help cover the costs as well.
“(The county) received some good news out of Springfield,” Cronin said. “I know that might seem unlikely, but DuPage County will receive capital funds next year to pay for infrastructure projects.”
