The Kane County Board got its first look Thursday at a tentative $27.4 million 1992 budget that is slightly higher than last year`s, but less than what was actually spent.
According to figures given to the board, the county expects to balance the general fund budget at $27.4 million by cutting the funding requests in 13 of its 33 budgeted departments.
In recent weeks, a committee made up of County Board Chairman Warren Kammerer, board member Nancy Wauchope and County Auditor Gerald Morrow helped slash some budget requests by as much as 28 percent from 1991 levels.
The overall budget is not expected to result in layoffs or wage freezes, although Kammerer has requested a hiring freeze.
Because the reassessment of property in the county is not yet complete, it is impossible to determine exactly how individual tax bills will be affected by the budget and the levy needed to meet it.
But Morrow said it was his guess that the county`s tax rate for the general fund, currently set just below 19 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, will either stay the same or decrease slightly.
However, even if the tax rate drops slightly, most tax bills would go up because of increased valuation.
In a typical budget cut, Development Director Philip Bus` funding request was pared down by 7 percent.
”I`m a taxpayer, too,” said Bus. ”I think government needs to tighten its belt.”
Harder hit by the budget slashers was the state`s attorney`s office, which had $121,000 trimmed from its $1.7 million request, and the sheriff`s office, which had $584,770 cut from its $4.9 million request.
Ironically, Sheriff F. John Randall earlier Thursday requested an additional $1 million to cover overruns in his current budget.
The cuts to the state`s attorney`s office killed a plan to hire a new attorney to help reduce caseloads for other lawyers in the office.
”It means the attorneys in the felony division are going to have to keep lumbering along at a caseload level that is unacceptable,” said State`s Atty. Gary Johnson. ”To me, 70 cases per attorney is unacceptable.”
In preparing the budget, officials estimated that the county`s levy would be 5 percent above the 1991 levy. That figure was set to meet a state-mandated tax cap, which limits increases to 5 percent or the cost of living increase, whichever is lower. The cost of living increase is measured by the consumer price index.
”We could have a hellish situation if the consumer price index is not 5 percent,” said Wauchope.
Last year, the county set a $27 million budget, but actual expenditures are expected to exceed $30 million. To make matters worse, the recession drove revenues $1.6 million below what the county had been expected to receive in 1991.
That forced the county to dip into cash reserves that have been all but depleted over the last four years.
”Last year`s projections were way off,” said Kammerer.”We spent a great deal of time making sure that these projections are going to be accurate.”
A ”truth in taxation” hearing will be held on the budget at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Government Center in Geneva.
