Health & Fitness
Mike Donahue: Kane County Budget's Initial Expense Requests Exceed Projected Revenues by $6 Million
If Aristotle had heard the 24 separate budget requests he would have said, "the sum of the parts is greater than the whole."
If Aristotle had attended our Kane County budget meeting last month and heard the budget requests from 24 separate departments he would have said, “the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.”
Indeed, the sum of $79 million requested by all those departments for general fund expenditures in 2012 exceeds the whole of projected revenues by $6 million, or approximately 8 percent.
Revenues are expected to be about $73 million for 2012, which is about the same as 2011 and about 4% less than 2010.
Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Not every department requested a significant expense increase, however. In fact, 17 of 24 departments requested only negligible increases or actual decreases in their budgets, the combined impact of which on the budget is nil.
So where are the big increases coming from?
Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Six departments, all related to public safety, are seeking $4.5 million in additional revenues to fund operations next year. These include the Judiciary, Court Services, State’s Attorney, Public Defender, Sheriff and Circuit Clerk. These offices combined are seeking $51.2 million, a 9 percent increase from the current year.
In addition, the County Clerk is requesting $600,000 more next year to run the 2012 elections, but this is a recurring fixed expense that happens every other year.
Finally, $1.1 million is proposed to increase the contingency fund from $400,000 to $1.5 million, an amount likely to be raided in the budget cutting process to come.
Over the next several weeks, the County Finance Committee will be reviewing the six public safety budgets in particular to determine funding needs and priorities. The Chief Judge, State’s Attorney, and Sheriff have already made very compelling arguments for demonstrable deficiencies that they would like to address in their departments.
The task ahead to balance the budget will be difficult, but this is the primary responsibility of the County Board each year. I look forward to participating in this process to assure that county’s overall tax levy does not increase in 2012 and that available dollars are allocated as wisely and efficiently as possible.
The County Board has until Nov. 30 to approve the final budget.
