Commissioners discuss FY26 proposed budget; no final vote, court gives staff direction on fire run pay, IT and library changes

Cook County Commissioners on an October meeting discussed the FY26 proposed budget, including potential increases for volunteer fire departments, a request for additional IT staff and software, and a modest raise in part‑time library pay; the court did not adopt a final budget.

The discussion centered on two competing approaches to support volunteer fire departments: a one‑time lump sum per department (proposals discussed ranged from $1,000 to $3,000 per department) and an increase in per‑call (run) payments. Commissioners and staff reviewed last year’s run payments and current run volumes and explored options to limit county exposure if call volumes spike.

Court members discussed specific options on the table: a $1,000 lump sum per department (about $10,000 if applied to 10 departments), a proposal from volunteer departments to increase run pay to $17.50 per call (which commissioners estimated would raise run payments by roughly $33,000 based on this year’s call volume), and a compromise that several commissioners voiced support for — raising per‑call pay to $7.50 with a cap of $20,000 total. Several commissioners said they favored a modest, capped increase rather than a large unconditional lump sum.

Commissioners also directed staff to fold a small increase for library part‑time pay (an increase of about $1,000 to the library personnel line) and a part‑time IT position plus a modest ticketing/asset‑tracking software line (approximately $1,500 reported as the software cost) into the proposed budget that will be circulated for later action. The court noted that purchases approved earlier (cloud storage and software upgrades) reduce some sheriff’s office IT costs; staff said the sheriff’s cloud storage had been ~$10,000 and the recent approvals leave a net small change in that line.

Several commissioners voiced concern about relying on fund balance to balance the county budget. The court reiterated that no final budget vote occurred at the meeting; the proposed budget will be revised to incorporate the small library and IT changes and the tentative per‑run/fire line direction, and the court will reconvene later this week to set public hearing dates and finalize the budget.

Item status: the court made no formal adoption of the FY26 budget (Item 25) and recorded the changes as direction to staff for inclusion in the next draft.

Next steps: staff will update the proposed budget to reflect the discussed adjustments and return to the court for further consideration and to set public hearing dates for the tax rate and final budget vote.