Kane County finance committee directs 10% preliminary cuts, plans ad hoc review group

The Kane County Finance and Budget Special Committee on May 21 directed county departments to prepare budgets showing a 10% reduction and discussed forming an ad hoc committee to review those department budgets, committee members said.

Chair Dale, presiding over the special meeting, opened the committee to a detailed budget discussion and asked staff and members to develop options to reduce a preliminary projected deficit. "We have our plans laid as to when we are going to accomplish each of the things in the budget," Chair Dale said during the meeting.

The committee settled, by general consensus rather than a formal vote, on instructing departments to prepare their general-fund budgets assuming a 10% reduction from their prior-year actuals. Committee member Vernon (Verne) Tepe proposed the 10% target as a practical middle path; Bill Leonard and others supported a percentage-based directive to give departments a clear target. "If we decide upon a number — my suggestion would be 10% — that we decide upon a number and we tell each department that you have to reduce your budget by 10%," Tepe said.

Members discussed other targets, including 5% and a steeper 18%, but coalesced around 10% as a starting point for departmental submissions. Several members emphasized that departments should use actuals from the general fund as the baseline and that the committee would not dictate how individual offices implement reductions. "We're not telling people where to cut," said Ms. Juby (committee member). "My list was just possible ways it could not be people." The committee acknowledged that some small or specialized departments might not be able to absorb an across-the-board percentage cut and suggested those exceptions be identified during the review process.

Committee members also proposed an ad hoc work group to meet with department heads and review the line-item budgets before the committee makes formal recommendations. At the meeting, Chair Dale outlined an ad hoc composition that would include committee members and departmental staff; members noted the group would need formal creation or approval at a future meeting to exercise official authority. "I'm going to form an ad hoc committee with Vern Chepi as the chairman, with Bill Leonard, Kathleen Atkinson, and Jamie Lavelo, and Roger Fonstad," Dale said; later staff counsel clarified that an ad hoc or subcommittee requires formal committee action to be official.

Committee members and staff said the 10% direction is intended to give departments a concrete target so the finance committee and elected offices can evaluate and negotiate actual cuts before the full budget is finalized. "If I'm a department, if I'm an elected, and I need, you know, I'm putting my budget information in now. What the heck do I put in? What's — am I going up? Am I going down?" asked John (committee member). The committee agreed to use the 10% consensus as guidance while staff and the proposed work group continue analysis.

Next steps discussed at the meeting included having the ad hoc or subcommittee meet with department heads to identify implementable savings and exceptions, and returning to the finance committee for formal approval of any specific reallocations or labor-related changes.