McHenry County finance committee deadlocks on 2025–26 levy; budget vote leaves final action unresolved

The McHenry County Finance & Audit Committee met Oct. 9 and split over how much of last year’s levy base to restore and how much to abate, producing tied or unresolved committee votes on the county’s proposed levy and annual budget ordinances.

The committee discussed whether to apply a three‑year “look back” calculation to reestablish the county’s levy base and whether to include CPI and new growth in that calculation. Staff presented a worksheet showing several scenarios: a plain look‑back base and variants with new growth and CPI added. The worksheet showed the look‑back-only total at about $73,802,726 and a scenario that included CPI and new growth at roughly $76,776,707. Committee staff also modeled abatement options; an abatement of $5,000,000 was used in one scenario and members discussed a smaller $1,700,000 abatement in another.

Why it matters: the levy and abatement choices determine how much property taxpayers may ultimately be billed and how much reserve the county retains. Committee discussion tied levy choices to the county’s general fund reserves and a series of unresolved budget pressures, including retirement funds, jail overtime and vacant positions.

Staff presentation and numbers

County budget staff presented an interactive spreadsheet the committee could adjust during the meeting. The spreadsheet linked the levy extension used as a base to options that would add CPI and new growth and then allocate the resulting total across the county’s levies. Staff said that using last year’s extension plus CPI and new growth would have produced roughly a 4% increase in total extension compared with last year and that, after splitting revenue among levies and accounting for commitments, the model could still show meaningful fund balance if gradual CPI assumptions (2.5% in out years) were applied.

The…