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Kane County transportation staff outline 2026 budget calendar, staffing and carryover funds
Summary
Staff presented the transportation budget calendar for 2026, described that the department uses special revenue and grant funds rather than general revenue, reported 71 total positions with four vacancies, and said tens of millions in project carryover are normal due to federal invoicing timelines.
Kane County transportation staff presented the department's 2026 budget calendar and staffing status and told the Transportation Committee about carryover funds from multi-year projects.
"Over the next few weeks, we're going to be entering the budgetary data into New World," Tom Rickard, staff member, said when outlining calendar dates for June and July and noting a presentation planned for June 17 and submission deadlines later in July. He said draft budgets will return to the transportation committee in July and August and then proceed to the finance committee.
Rickard said the division uses special revenue and grant funds rather than general-revenue money and that the county's property tax levy allocated to the division has not increased; staff said it has remained roughly $5,400,000 for 13 years. He said 85% of the department's budget is project spending and that many federal projects require multi-year carryover because county invoicing may not occur until years after construction. "A lot of our federal projects... we will not even be invoiced for the county's portion of that project until years after the fact," Rickard said.
On staffing, Rickard said the department has 71 total positions with 67 field positions and four vacancies (three engineering vacancies and one construction technician). He said the division seeks to restore part-time seasonal "snowbird" positions and intern positions removed in the prior year's budget because they support winter operations and data collection.
Committee members asked about interest earned on the county-held funds pending invoicing; Rickard said the money remains in county accounts and the treasurer's office manages the returns. A staff photo shown to the committee noted one of the department's new trucks cost about $300,000.
Staff said further budget detail will be entered into the county's financial system and presented at future meetings.
Next steps: staff will input budget data into New World and return with a detailed 2026 draft for committee review.
