Along with approving a sales tax referendum for next spring, the Kane County Board Tuesday voted to put a $416.6 million draft budget for 2025, which does not include millions in cuts proposed by the Finance Committee, on public display.
The draft budget includes the use of $29.3 million in reserves from the county’s general fund to balance the budget, an estimated $19 million increase over this year’s budgeted use of reserve funds.
To raise funds and get out of deficit spending, the Kane County Board also approved a 0.75% sales tax referendum question to be placed on the ballot in April’s consolidated election. The proposed county sales tax would generate over $50 million yearly, according to county Finance Director Kathleen Hopkinson.
If the board were to approve a 2026 budget with similar spending levels to the draft 2025 budget without the proposed sales tax, the county would need to dip into 90-day reserve funds that are required under county policy, according to budget projections presented by Hopkinson.
She said that, after the budgeted 2025 expenses, the general fund would have only around $8 million above the required 90-day reserves.
Board members said at Tuesday’s meeting and previous meetings that the county would likely need to make significant cuts to personnel and services if the proposed sales tax is not approved by voters.
The draft budget was approved for public display by a 15-7 vote, with board members Mavis Bates, Leslie Juby, Bill Lenert, Myrna Molina, Bill Roth, Clifford Surges and Bill Tarver voting against. Many who voted in favor specified that they were voting only to put it on display, not necessarily in favor of the budget itself.
The sales tax referendum was approved by a 15-4 vote, with board members Gary Daugherty, Mohammad Iqbal, Bill Roth and David Young voting against.
A number of cuts to the budget were proposed by the Finance Committee after discussions and presentations given at a number of meetings over the last few months, but the majority of those cuts were taken out by the Executive Committee, which sets the County Board’s agenda.
One of those proposed cuts was to move roughly $4 million in RTA transportation sales tax revenue from the Kane County Department of Transportation to the general fund.
The Executive Committee also added a $6 million transfer from the general fund to the capital projects fund after the Finance Committee removed a similar transfer from its recommended budget.
The $416.6 million draft 2025 budget is around $15.8 million less than the approved 2024 budget, but that drop is primarily because of expiring COVID-19 relief funds from the federal government and others that the county managed.
The county’s general fund budget for 2025, which is proposed at around $138.9 million, is $14.5 million over this year’s general fund budget, according to Hopkinson’s presentation.
The overall draft budget does not include a property tax rate increase, only an increase in the levy to account for new growth.
The county’s special revenue fund, which represents dollars that are restricted to certain uses, is at $277.8 million in the proposed 2025 budget, which is $30.3 million less than this year’s budget for this fund, Hopkinson’s presentation showed.
At the July 30 Finance Committee meeting, Hopkinson presented a breakdown of the 2025 budget by government function. It showed that roughly 50% of the general fund is going to pay for public safety, with 27% going toward general government functions and 21% going toward judiciary functions.
Breaking it down even further, Hopkinson showed in her presentation that the Sheriff’s Office made up 36% of the proposed 2025 general fund budget, with the next highest department being Building Management at 12%.
Kane County residents looking to view the proposed budget for themselves can find it online at: www.kanecountyil.gov/Pages/finance.aspx
rsmith@chicagotribune.com