Some Kane departments still not hitting 2018 budget numbers

New numbers released by the Kane County Finance Department show how some officials are using funds from special accounts to avoid a 3.64 percent across-the-board budget cut imposed by the county board for 2018.

The report comes in hopes of easing tensions created by pages in the draft budget that some officials took as evidence that not every office will share equally in the budget tightening. The pages showed departments like the circuit court clerk receiving a 6.12 percent budget cut while other expenses, like countywide costs for computer software and telephones, would rise by 11.32 percent.

Chief Financial Officer Joe Onzick said those numbers aren't what they appear to be at first glance. Onzick said those percentages relate back to the 2017 amended budgets. The amended budgets reflect what the departments will actually spend in 2017 as opposed to what the county board told them they could spend in crafting the 2017 budget.

"The resulting percentages are mostly about 3.64 percent below the 2017 adjusted adopted budget," Onzick said, not the actual spending.

There are some exceptions. The new budget document shows that departments not cutting at least 3.64 percent will instead chip in some new cash to the general fund from special revenue accounts in their offices. That money makes up for at least part of what they aren't trimming.

For example, Coroner Rob Russell kicked in $100,000 from a special fund in that office to make up for some of the planned spending increases. That still leaves him about $122,000 above the 2018 budget number he was supposed to hit.

The state's attorney's office needed to slash about $101,000 to comply with the budget cut. Instead, State's Attorney Joe McMahon will push in $52,785. That leaves him nearly $47,000 short of the target budget number for his office.

As to why the numbers and perspective aren't included in the draft budget for the public and departments to view, Onzick explained the law does not require them to be included.

The county board will take a final vote on the 2018 budget Tuesday. If nothing changes, the plan will eliminate electronic and GPS monitoring of criminal defendants by the end of the first quarter. The 102 people currently in the program, including some with domestic violence charges, will either go to jail or no longer be monitored while free on bail.