The Will County Board on Thursday approved a $146 million budget, with nearly a third of the spending going for law enforcement and the court system.
A projected $400 million increase in the county’s tax base will finance much of next year’s $6 million increase in spending.
Described as a consensus budget, the 1998 spending plan triggered virtually no complaints from department heads and was praised by the leadership of both parties.
County Executive Charles Adelman (D-Lockport) submitted the budget to the board.
The low-key reception is a sharp contrast to the contentiousness that routinely had marked county budgets until Adelman began three years ago to include the County Board leadership in preparing the document.
“This is our third consensus budget,” Adelman said. “It works. (In earlier years) we would have seven or eight different (proposed) budgets in front of us, and nobody knew what was going on.”
The budget calls for an $11 increase on the property-tax bill of a home with a market value of $150,000.
The largest item calls for $22.4 million in spending by the Sheriff’s Department.
The figure does not include wage increases, which are being negotiated. All seven of the county’s labor contracts expire this year.
Sheriff Brendan Ward said his spending is expected to grow by $174,000 over last year’s budget figure, but said he has no complaints.
“They have given me enough to work with,” Ward said. He says the figure does not include the purchase of 20 new police cars, which are being financed from another fund. If he can get a financial commitment from the board for future years, Ward said he intends to explore the possibility of leasing police cars.
“If we leased, we could get 40 new cars instead of 20 for the same money,” says Ward.
Law enforcement and the courts are budgeted $45 million, or 30 percent of the county’s spending.
County Board member Margie Woods of Joliet, the board’s Democratic minority leader, said she has heard little or no grumbling about this year’s budget.
“Nobody spoke up and said they had any problems with it,” Woods said. “I think everybody was satisfied.”
Board member Richard Brandolino of New Lenox, the leader of the Republican majority, also endorsed the spending plan.
“It reflects a projection of a balanced budget,” he said. “The money is going to protect the people, law enforcement and the courts.”
The budget calls for a tax rate of 0.5971 percent of a property’s assessed value, but the final figure will not be set until new assessment figures become available next spring.
Assessment officials said they expect the county’s tax base to be $7.6 billion, including $292 million in new construction.
The budget, which must be approved by Nov. 30, goes into effect Dec. 1.
