DuPage County chair proposes $644.7 million balanced 2026 budget with $18.1 million resiliency fund

Chair Conroy presented DuPage County’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget Tuesday, proposing a balanced $644,700,000 spending plan and a $263,100,000 general fund while seeking a $71,500,000 property tax levy. The budget relies in part on an expected FY2025 surplus and creates an $18,100,000 DuPage Sustainability Initiative Fund to address near-term needs if federal supports are reduced.

The proposal matters because county leaders say uncertainty at the federal level and recent proposals in Springfield could reduce local revenue for services residents depend on. “For the first time, we must plan based on threats to the very existence of the federal departments and programs our residents depend on,” Conroy said as she opened the presentation.

Under Conroy’s plan, the DuPage Sustainability Initiative is divided into three categories: food security, housing innovation and a community sustainability fund. For food, the chair proposed $1,000,000 in 2026 budget dollars plus a $1,000,000 transfer from any FY2025 surplus (totaling $2,000,000) and a separate $2,500,000 FY2025-surplus allocation to Loaves & Fishes’ food-distribution hub project; combined with…