Proposed DuPage County cuts for 2008:


Health Department

• Urgent dental care will be eliminated which serves 1800 people for emergency dental care. It is the only urgent dental care in the county, which means using the emergency room for these services.
  
• 1200 low-income women will no longer get screened for cervical and breast cancer.
  
• Veterans Assistance will be cut, which offers programs to vets that no other agency offers.
  
• A total of $6.1 million will have been cut from the Health Department between 2006 and 2008.
  

• $14.2 million was cut from 2002 to 2007; now an additional 21% cut is proposed. Community Services will have half the budget it had in 2002.
  
• Funding for Human Services Grants Program (serving 27,000 people) was eliminated in 2007. These grants went to 45 agencies (i.e. PADS, Bridge Communities, Peopleís Resource Center, etc.).
  
• The County Call Center (information and referral), which receives 150,000 calls a year, will be cut.
  
• Rides for low-income seniors and disabled will be cut.
  
• Family self-sufficiency serving 350 families and homeless will be cut.
  
• Mental Health Services (serving 30,000 people a year) will have a 20% decrease in funding.
  
• Funding to Access DuPage, a medical referral agency for the uninsured serving 8,000 people, was cut in half last year and will be cut further.
  
• Veterans Assistance cut 12%
  

• Already $3.5 million has been cut (51 full-time positions and 69 part-time positions and 148 beds are no longer available)
  
• The proposed $200,000 cuts will effectively lead to closing the facility. Closing now will be a big cost in severance pay, early retirement and transferring patients to other facilities.
  

• The average county has 1 prosecutor for every 10,000 people. DuPage County has 1 prosecutor for every 21,000 people and the proposed budget would cut 7 more prosecutors.
  

• Over 100 deputies will be cut, which will affect response time and jail overtime.
  

• The recommended caseload for a public defender is at most 400. DuPage Public Defenders each currently have a caseload of 1000 and a 12% cut in personnel is proposed.
  

• A hazardous waste pick up facility will be eliminated, which has collected about _ million tons of hazardous waste since 1996.
  
• Latex paint recycling center, which has collected 17,000 cans of paint and distributed 2500 5-gallon buckets, will be eliminated.
  
• Flood control facilities, such as dams and reservoirs, will not be maintained.
  
• Water quality improvements are being deferred.
  
• Water well testing services will be eliminated.