Kane County commission approves 2026 judicial technology budget; software licensing and hosting worry commissioners

Kane County commissioners on the Judicial and Public Safety Strategic Planning and Technology Commission voted to approve the commission's 2026 judicial technology budget Tuesday, moving a recommendation to the full county board.

The submitted budget totals $1,972,218, roughly a 5% increase from the 2025 amended total of $1,877,009.62, driven primarily by higher software licensing costs and a $26,000 increase in salary and wages for support staff, officials said.

The budget matter matters because the court case management system and several integrated software products support court operations, public defenders, the state's attorney and other county functions; rising vendor fees could require new funding or reallocation of county resources.

Roger Fonstock, with Kane County IT and building management, reviewed the worksheet packet showing the submitted totals and line-item changes. He said the submitted 2026 salary-and-wage line is $352,008.93 versus $326,007.26 previously, an increase of about $26,000. The packet also shows software license costs rose by about 6%, which attendees described in the meeting as roughly $73,000.

Charles Lask of the IT department, who led the technical explanation, identified Tyler maintenance as the largest single licensing item in the transactions report and noted additional line items for Axon (body-camera/evidence management), DocuSign and other integrations. "Tyler is currently projected to go up about 5 percent a year until we get to 2030 when they're not gonna allow us to have an on prem version of their software," Lask said, warning that a hosted-only future could raise costs substantially.

Commissioners discussed the long-term funding implications. Lask presented an initial vendor estimate that moving to a hosted Tyler solution could raise the county's software costs by about $545,000 in the first year (including roughly $100,000 of first-year integration work), with an ongoing increase of about $477,000 thereafter and an annual vendor escalation of about 5% in subsequent years. He said those figures are preliminary and would require more detailed planning.

Commissioner Judy Grama asked whether the proposed 2026 budget contains discretionary increases; Fonstock and Lask said most of the change is contractual licensing and personnel reclassification, not new discretionary programs. Bill Roth, a Kane County board member who spoke during the meeting, confirmed the budget is funded from the county's RTA sales-tax allocation: "This is a 100% coming from the RTA sales tax. Right? It's not coming from general funds," Roth said during the discussion.

Commissioners voted to approve the budget recommendation for 2026 and directed that the recommendation be forwarded to finance and the county board as part of the regular county budget process. The approval was moved by Villa and seconded by Barreiro and passed by roll-call vote.

The commission also reviewed a balance-sheet and revenue ledger summary showing a current fund equity of $1,125,428 and RTA sales-tax revenue of $1,612,006.47 for the fund; staff noted the sales-tax receipts run about one to two months behind and interest income is credited to the fund.

Commission members urged earlier and ongoing county-level planning for the anticipated hosted-software transition, noting that integration, testing and funding decisions will take years to complete.

What happens next: the commission's recommendation will be transmitted to the finance committee and the county board as part of the county's budget review process. Commissioners said they intend to request more detailed cost estimates from vendors and to consider long-range funding options ahead of any mandatory vendor-driven transition.