Per the recommendation of the United Counties Council of Illinois, the Knox County Finance Committee has approved a formal complaint to the State of Illinois.
A state wide law went into effect last June that requires that counties pay jurors $25 for their first day of service and $50 every day after, up from $15 a day previously.
That increase has the county at 50% of it’s yearly budget for juror compensation.
As Finance Committee Chairman Greg “Chops” Bacon tells WGIL, the action they took won’t actually change the rates.
“This is something that we’re just passing a resolution and we send this to the state,” Bacon says. “It’s not going to change the way things are done right now. This is just us telling the state we don’t like the law they passed.”
State’s Attorney John Pepmeyer explained to the committee that judges have made some cost saving efforts including only calling juries when a case is about to go to trial.
“So many times they would call them in that first day and we have, you know, 80 people sitting downstairs and then all the cases would fold and we’d still have to compensate them.”
Elsewhere in county finances, revenue is slightly higher than expenses for four county funds; the general fund, Mary Davis Home, Knox County Nursing Home and landfill.
All of these had three payroll cycles in January which inflated their expenses although only the nursing home and general fund are operating at a deficit.
Bacon expects these funds to be greatly healed once taxes begin to roll in.
