Breaking Down DuPage Mayors’ Goals for 2017

The DuPage Mayors and Managers Association recently released its 2017 Legislative Action Program, which outlines main goals that the leaders of DuPage’s 33 municipalities hope to achieve in the new year.

At an annual dinner ahead of the Illinois General Assembly’s spring session, leaders presented their priorities and recognized one person as the Governmental Leader of the Year — DuPage County Coroner Richard Jorgensen. Jorgenson was awarded 2016’s prize because of his efforts to eliminate heroin abuse and opioid dependency in the county, according to a release.

DMMC’s past president and current Downers Grove mayor, Martin Tully, presented four issues that will be at the forefront of mayors’ minds this year. Some of the language gets technical, but we decoded the jargon so you can know exactly what’s going on in your local governments.

“Municipalities in DuPage County are facing an uncertain future as the state financial woes continue to linger without a balanced budget agreement,” Tully said in the release. “As a result, cities and villages face negative consequences that impact local economies and taxpayers...We pledge to work with the Governor, legislative leaders and our state lawmakers to resolve the impasse and work together on a budget solution.”

Here are 2017’s goals:

1. Ensure sustainable municipal budgets

What lawmakers said:

Making sure that revenue generated by local residents and businesses stays local is crucial to preserving vital municipal services like police and fire protection, garbage pick-up, road maintenance and snow removal. DMMC communities, as well as those throughout the state, rely on these revenue streams—including Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF) dollars that are collected by the state and returned to municipal governments to pay for essential services. By protecting all state-collected local revenue streams, legislators help ensure municipalities can deliver these basic services and necessary staffing to residents.

What it means:

Mayors want all of the money made by local businesses and through local residents to stay — you guessed it — local. By keeping cash within individual communities, officials are saying there’s a better chance the community will be able to continue to pay city workers (like policemen, firemen and garbage collectors) what they deserve.

2. Preserve retirement benefits for policemen and firefighters

What they said:

To ensure retirement security for local police officers and firefighters, DMMC is part of a statewide coalition advocating for reforms aimed at preserving public safety pensions. Without cutting benefits, consolidating the 651 individual public safety pension funds into a single multiple-employer pension system would expand investment opportunities and lower operational expenses for those who serve our communities.

What it means:

You can see the numbers above — there are 651 separate public safety pension funds set up in DuPage County as of right now. What officials want to do is consolidate those under one umbrella, which would cut operational costs while protecting those pension funds and ensuring they’re available for retirees when needed.

3. Empower local taxpayers, regardless of population

What they said:

Municipalities should have the ability to respond to constituent needs and govern themselves, regardless of their population. Removing the distinction between home rule and non-home rule communities would eliminate the barriers of non-home rule authority, giving municipalities crucial local control and decision-making ability. This reform would also provide access to restricted dollars to fund critical services like police and fire protection, infrastructure repairs and economic development. Non-home rule communities make up approximately half of the municipalities in DuPage and approximately 83 percent of those in Illinois.

What it means:

First, it’s important to know what home rule means in this situation. In the past, all municipalities used to be governed first and foremost by state government, according to the National League of Cities. Local leaders would have to lobby for more authority and file special acts to expand the amount of power a local government would have, if that’s what they wanted. The idea of “home rule” came about in the 1900s and meant that while states still had power over their individual towns, that power was limited. Home rule means local autonomy and more freedom within individual, local governments. DuPage mayors want all local governments to have that degree of freedom and say they’ll work to make that possible this year.

4. Make local businesses more competitive

What they said:

Workers’ compensation reforms would create economic opportunity and jobs to make Illinois more competitive with surrounding states. Adopting common-sense changes would lead to more reasonable settlements without harming employees who have legitimate claims. Modest reforms would better protect workers and enable employers to expand, relocate and grow their businesses.

What it means:

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Mayors want to grow local jobs and create a more competitive market in DuPage County. From what this language indicates, these changes in legislation are expected to be small but create big change.

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