Judicial and public safety spending ends fiscal 2024 slightly under budget; general fund driven by courts and public safety

Kane County finance staff told the Judicial and Public Safety Committee on Jan. 16 that judicial and public safety (JPS) spending for fiscal 2024 closed slightly under the amended budget, but committee members pressed for detail on several overages.

Director of Finance Kathy Hopkinson opened the JPS financial briefing by saying, “The total all expenses for all the judicial public safety offices across all funds for 2024, is coming in around a 102 and a half $1,000,000. The amended budget for 2024 was a 105,000,000.7, so it's slightly under budget.” She added that the reported numbers were close to final but still subject to late invoices and reclassifications.

The takeaway: most JPS activity is paid from the county general fund. Hopkinson said that of the roughly $102.5 million in JPS expenses, about $86.9 million was recorded in the county’s general fund — about 83% of the county’s total general-fund expenses for 2024. “If you look at the county's general fund for 2024, right now, we're at about a $123 and a half $1,000,000 in expenses. So 86,900,000 of that 123,000,000 is judicial public safety,” she said.

Why it matters: committee members noted that JPS accounts for a large share of the county’s spending, so even modest over- or under-runs inside JPS can materially affect the county’s budget position. Hopkinson said the county budgeted a $10 million use of fund balance for 2024; early closeout numbers suggested the county will use about $13 million of fund balance — roughly $3 million more than originally planned — to balance the year.

Board members pressed for explanations of line-item overages. Commissioner Greg Greif asked about a commodities category that showed about a 14% overrun; Hopkinson said the packet contains the line-item detail and she did not have the specific invoice-level answer at the meeting. “It's probably a combination of multiple offices, commodities,” she said.

Commissioner Williams asked why the law library appeared so over budget. Hopkinson said the law library is a small special fund and the apparent overrun was driven by a single large purchase recorded under subscriptions — “it looks like it's 1 single purchase,” she said; later discussion suggested the purchase was roughly $200,000 and was likely for subscription or software access for the law library.

Several members asked about the sheriff's office and KingComm overages. Hopkinson and under-sheriff staff explained the sheriff’s salaries line was affected by a prior-year budget cut and by a newly ratified union contract with retroactive pay. On KingComm, Hopkinson said KingComm operates in a separate fund funded largely by subscriber fees; she and the KingComm representative noted union agreement ratification and several project wrap-ups with reimbursements pending.

Hopkinson described how the general fund is treated as a single pool: “We look at the general fund as a whole... if it's a special revenue fund, the activity is staying in the special revenue fund. But if it's part of the general fund, all the pluses and minuses basically go to 1 bottom line for the general fund.” She also noted that some JPS offices bring in significant dedicated revenue — for example, circuit clerk fees and state reimbursements for court services salaries — and that those revenues reduce the county’s reliance on property or sales tax support for those operations.

Board reaction and context: commissioners praised department managers for holding JPS costs close to budget despite countywide pressures. Commissioner Leonard said JPS’s near-level performance highlighted that other county areas experienced larger increases: “We have to appreciate what the members of the JPS committee have done… if everyone had done as well as JPS, we would be in much better shape.”

What’s next: Hopkinson reminded the board that the packet includes line-level detail and offered to follow up with commissioners on specific line-item questions, including the commodities overrun and the law-library purchase. The committee did not take formal action on the presentation.