To help balance the 2025 budget, the Kane County Board Finance and Budget Committee is asking county departments and offices to make a collective $5 million in cuts — or if cuts cannot be made, to explain why.
The requested cuts are part of the committee’s proposal to make up for a projected $28.3 million deficit in Kane County’s 2025 budget, which is currently in development. That proposal, which also includes using $15 million in cash reserves, was discussed and approved at a special committee meeting on Monday.
In addition to making cuts and using reserves, the proposal would make up for the budget deficit by walking back on transferring almost $4.35 million toward capital projects and by moving roughly $4 million in RTA transportation sales tax revenue from the Kane County Department of Transportation to the county’s general fund.
The requested budget cuts are just half of the $10 million in cuts originally on the meeting’s agenda, which Kane County officials spoke against during the meeting’s public comment time.
These officials, including Sheriff Ron Hain and State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser, said the cuts would mean they would need to cut staff from their offices, which would impact their ability to provide state-mandated services.
The Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office is already both understaffed and underpaid, according to Mosser. Other officials said similar things about their office’s staffing levels.
Mosser said that if the Kane County Board goes through with budget cuts to the offices of public safety officials such as herself, they would have “no choice but to sue the County Board to reasonably fund public safety.” This lawsuit would cost the county even more in legal fees, she said.
“I implore this County Board to take a different approach to balance this budget, one that does not cause unnecessary litigation or threaten the safety of every person here in Kane County,” Mosser said.
Kane County’s Court Services Executive Director Lisa Aust, Public Defender Rachele Conant and Circuit Clerk Theresa Barreiro also spoke during public comment to say they were already making cuts where possible but that any further cuts would impact their ability to provide state- or federally-mandated services.
To calculate the proposed cuts, the Kane County Finance and Budget Committee looked at the percent of the total budget each department takes. Those departments would then be responsible for that percentage of the proposed $5 million in budget cuts.
For example, since the Kane County State’s Sheriff’s Office makes up roughly 41% of the county’s general fund budget, the committee is asking the office to find just over $2 million in cuts or to explain why that money cannot be cut from the budget.
Using those calculations, the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office would need to find almost $530,000 in cuts, the Building Management Department would need to find roughly $434,000 in cuts and Court Services would need to make around $420,000 in cuts, according to a presentation at the meeting.
Not all county departments or offices are being asked to make the cuts, only those taking up more than 1% of the general fund budget, the presentation shows.
The Kane County Treasurer and Recorder’s Offices were also not included at the request of Kane County Board member Leslie Juby, who said they should be excluded from the cuts because they make money for the county.
Juby also suggested that, since the proposed cuts are just the starting point of a discussion, there should be a clause in the proposed ordinance stating that, if the departments or offices cannot make the proposed cuts, they can instead provide “detailed information” about why.
Other Finance and Budget Committee members agreed, and it was added to the proposed ordinance.
Offices and departments were asked to get their new budgets with the requested cuts or their explanations for why cuts cannot be made in by Friday, as they will be discussed at a special meeting of the committee planned for Aug. 19.
The Kane County Board Finance and Budget Committee is also set to discuss the proposed sales tax referendum at the next special meeting. The sales tax was on Monday’s agenda, but committee members voted to postpone the discussion.
County officials have previously said that an additional 1% sales tax, which would add $1 of taxes onto every $100 spent on items covered by the tax in Kane County, would bring in about $60 million annually, more than making up for the budget shortfall the county is currently facing.
“We all think that we need to pass a sales tax,” Finance and Budget Committee Chair Dale Berman said. “But I’ll tell you that voters are not going to vote on a sales tax unless we’ve done the best we can to reduce our budget.”
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
