Welcome to Fantasy Island, also known as Lake County government.

This is where the economy seems to require little notice, where taxpayers' laments are screened out -- or so it would seem.

What else could explain the requests for pay raises of $200 to $10,000 for some Lake County employees even as the taxpayers who will be paying those salaries are seeing their own income drop dramatically?

Lake County Economic Development director Milan Grozdanich is asking the council to approve $10,000 in supplemental pay for himself and two other department employees and a $5,000 bonus for a fourth employee.

Grozdanich's salary this year is $75,190. He wants more money for himself and his staff to administer $232,425 in recently awarded federal stimulus money to rehabilitate and sell suburban houses left vacant because of the wave of foreclosures.

Calumet Township Assessor Booker Blumenburg Jr. wanted to distribute more than $12,000 in raises among eight employees using money left in his budget following the resignation of two other deputy assessors.

It is extremely difficult to justify raises even as the Lake County Council had to eliminate 112 county government jobs last year because of property tax caps.

The council on Tuesday deferred a decision on the pay raises. It needs to deny them, not just postpone a decision, at its next meeting to send a strong signal to other officeholders.

Lake County officials seeking pay raises -- exorbitant, in some cases -- desperately need a reality check. It is a slap in the face of the county's taxpayers to seek extra money during these economic times.