Months of budget discussions came to a head recently as the Kane County Board voted to put a draft of the county’s fiscal year 2026 budget on display for the public to view and narrowly passed two revenue-generating proposals for next year.
The draft budget as it stands amounts to roughly $405.7 million, and is balanced using a little over $2.1 million in cash reserves, according to the current figures. Last year’s adopted budget totaled $416.6 million, according to past reporting.
Following public review and feedback on the budget, budget approval is set to be addressed next at the Kane County Board’s Finance Committee meeting on Oct. 29. The board is planning to vote to adopt the budget at its Nov. 10 full board meeting. The board must approve a budget by the start of the new fiscal year, which begins on Dec. 1.
How did the county get here?
Kane County has been facing a budget shortfall in its general fund in recent years, which the board has been solving since 2023 by dipping into the county’s cash reserves. Last year, for example, the budget was balanced with the planned use of about $27 million in general fund reserves, according to past reporting.
As of September, the county was on track to spend roughly that amount in reserves for the year, according to Kane County Finance Director Kathleen Hopkinson. She has previously cautioned that the county must make significant cuts or find new revenue before 2027 to avoid dipping into its required 90-day reserves.
So that left the board this year with the task of finding new revenue or cutting costs to avoid spending down the county’s reserve funds.
One of the major solutions touted by some board members as a solution to the county’s budget woes was a 0.75% sales tax referendum question, which the county board moved to put on the ballot in the April 1 election. The proposed tax was projected to generate over $50 million yearly for public safety expenses in the county, according to past reporting.
But that measure was overwhelmingly shot down by voters in April, leaving county board members to determine other ways to solve the budget shortfall.
They’ve considered a hiring freeze, reallocated a portion of the county’s Regional Transportation Authority sales tax funds from transportation to public safety and asked county departments and offices to cut their individual budgets by roughly 8% from last year.
Now, after a series of conversations and measures meant to address the budget shortfall, the county has passed a preliminary draft of the budget. But some aspects of it are still subject to change, according to current Finance Committee Chair Bill Lenert.
Currently, the budget relies on the use of a little more than $2 million in reserves to balance it, but Lenert said board members are hoping not to use any in the final budget. The estimated amount of reserves the county may pull to balance the budget could be between zero and $4 million, he said.
And, according to numbers from the county, the Sheriff’s Office, State’s Attorney’s Office, Public Defender, Coroner, Court Services and Regional Office of Education still need to reduce their budgets by almost $8 million collectively to be in line with the county board’s expected allocations.
Lenert said at a Finance Committee meeting last week that all of the county’s departments and the majority of the county elected officials’ offices have agreed to the reduced allocations recommended by the board. The other offices that haven’t reduced their budgets are continuing to negotiate with the board about their individual budgets and allocations before the county budget comes to the board for final approval.
Last year, the board ultimately approved the county’s budget for the current fiscal year in mid-November, according to past reporting, after putting the draft budget on display in September.
What’s in the draft budget put on display?
The county’s budget is broken largely into two sections, the general fund and the various special funds, which represent dollars that are restricted to certain uses. The general fund is the fund that has been facing a shortfall.
The general fund spending in the 2026 draft budget totals just under $127 million, according to the draft budget worksheet. That’s almost $12 million lower than the general fund expenses from the 2025 adopted budget, according to past reporting.
According to the draft budget, the county was originally expected to use nearly $11 million in reserves this year to balance its general fund, but the revised budget uses a little over $2.1 million.
The other major component of the budget is the county’s special revenue funds, which account for a little under $279 million of the draft budget. That is about $1 million higher than what was listed in last year’s adopted budget, according to past reporting.
In comparing fiscal year 2025 to 2026, however, the draft budget numbers are lower than the 2025 amended budget, which reflects revisions made to the county’s annual budget. The 2025 amended budget was nearly $444 million, per the county: roughly $144 million from the general fund and almost $300 million from the county’s special revenue funds.
In addition to putting the draft budget on display, the county board recently debated — and narrowly approved — two measures meant to increase the county’s revenues.
One is a hike in the current motor fuel tax from five cents per gallon to eight cents per gallon. The other is a 1% grocery tax replacing the state’s grocery tax set to expire on Jan. 1. Both are slated to take effect in the county on July 1.
What happens next?
The draft budget is available for the public to view at: https://www.kanecountyil.gov/Pages/finance.aspx.
Pierog said last week that a hard copy of the draft budget will also be available at the County Clerk’s Office. Any comments from the public can be sent to the Kane County Board’s office, she said.
According to Lenert, discussions with elected officials about their budgets are still occurring. The county board is also expected to vote on whether to increase the county’s property tax levy by the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, of 2.9% in the coming weeks, which is projected to generate around $2 million in revenue. The CPI increase is already factored into the draft budget, according to Hopkinson.
Last year was the first year since 2013 that the board opted to increase the general fund property tax levy except to account for new construction, according to past reporting.
The board is set to discuss the budget at its Finance Committee meeting on Oct. 29. It is then expected to go on to the Executive Committee and, if recommended for approval, to the full board for final approval in November.
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
