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Lake County committee creates new fund to hold stormwater project match payments
Summary
The Financial Administrative Committee approved Resolution 8.19 to create a new project expense-match fund to segregate partner-paid stormwater project match payments from the county's DCO grant and operating funds; the move transfers $2,526,406.68 and establishes a FY'26 emergency appropriation of $1,545,960.
The Lake County Financial Administrative Committee voted April 9 to create a new project expense match fund to hold payments made by municipal project partners for stormwater projects, a change county officials said will separate partner-administered funds from state grants and operating accounts.
Director Rolle explained that the proposed fund will hold project expense-match payments received under intergovernmental agreements with local partners and is not state DCO grant money or property tax revenue. "This is a new fund that's being created to hold the project expense match funds that we received from our intergovernmental agreements through our project partners," she said, adding that those partner payments are for project engineering, administration and other capital improvement program costs.
The county plans to transfer $2,526,406.68 from the stormwater management fund (Fund 212) into the new PEM fund and to authorize an emergency appropriation of $1,545,960 to establish the fund's FY 2026 budget while reducing the stormwater management fund's FY 2026 budget by $335,960. Rolle and other officials emphasized these monies were not part of the $122,000,000 DCO grant and are not property tax funds.
Supporters said the reclassification improves accounting clarity and helps staff monitor program-specific cash flows. "We don't want that project expense match funds com mingled with our operations," Rolle said. She noted about half of the DCO appropriation has been encumbered and that roughly 33 unfunded projects remain on the county's list; moving the partner-paid funds into a discrete account will, officials said, make engineering design work for future rounds more transparent and help make projects shovel-ready.
Committee members asked whether recategorizing the money would change how it could be used. Member Clark said he wanted to confirm the change was primarily accounting. Rolle replied, "It was always gonna be used for this purpose," and said the shift is intended to segregate the funds for clearer management; she added some staff positions will move into the new fund to administer the program.
After discussion the committee approved Resolution 8.19 by voice vote.
The committee's action does not change the described uses of the funds, officials said; it reorganizes existing partner-contributed project match payments into one fund for clearer tracking and separate administration.
