Kane County finance committee endorses using 2024 spending as baseline while working group seeks revenue options

Kane County's Finance and Budget Committee on July 23 debated how to close a widening general-fund gap and agreed to distribute 2024 actual spending figures to departments and elected officials as a reference point for creating 2026 budgets. The working group — made up of five committee members — told the committee the county cannot sustain the level of department and elected-official budgets submitted for 2026 and recommended using 2024 actuals as the comparative baseline. The group said that, even with potential revenue changes (a 2.9% cost-of-living property tax increase, reallocation of some RTA sales tax and use of riverboat reserves), department-submitted budgets would leave a multi‑million-dollar shortfall. The nut graf: committee members said the goal is to set a realistic revenue allocation and then require managers and elected officials to present expense plans that fit that revenue; the group emphasized the board’s statutory role to allocate available revenues and warned that without new revenue or deeper cuts further reductions will be necessary in 2027. The working group presented three options: (1) a maximum-revenue scenario including full CPI, maximum RTA transfer and internal riverboat use (resulting in a large deficit when compared to submitted budgets); (2) a constrained plan using base revenues plus modest reallocations that still left a shortfall to be addressed from available surplus; and (3) a recommendation to set elected-official and department allocation levels near 2024 actuals and ask departments to budget within that allocation. Members pressed for more granular review of grants and specific line items that produced “wild swings” between 2024 actuals and the 2026 submissions. Finance Director Kathleen Hopkinson told the committee that general-fund revenue to date is roughly 9% below expectations but that timing of property-tax receipts should bridge some of that gap; she flagged permit and grant timing as items needing deeper review. Committee members and staff also raised process concerns about last-minute distribution of the presentation materials; several members said they did not receive the final version until hours before the meeting and requested at least 48 hours for review before substantive votes. The committee agreed by consensus to distribute the 2024-actual expense allocations to departments and elected officials for their committees to use as a point of reference while the working group continues to refine revenue options and specific reductions. The committee scheduled a special finance meeting for July 30 to continue work on two related revenue proposals (property-tax CPI treatment and a related revenue item) and to give members more time to review the working-group materials. Ending: The decision to send 2024 actuals to departments is advisory, not final budget approval; members said the next steps will include department-level committee hearings, a refined revenue proposal from the working group, and additional meetings before the full board adopts a 2026 budget.