Lake County budget to grow in '08

Despite financial challenges created by the housing market's decline and other economic issues, Lake County's budget will swell again in 2008, according to a draft spending plan.

Officials expect to spend about $450 million on salaries, building repairs, road projects, equipment purchases and other efforts.

That's up about 6 percent from the current year's $425 million spending plan.

Administrators anticipate collecting about $425 million in taxes and other revenues during the next fiscal year, which starts Dec. 1.

Spending will exceed that total, but only because some capital projects will be funded by loans or cash already on hand, Finance and Administrative Director Gary Gordon explained Wednesday.

The proposed day-to-day operating budget is balanced, Gordon said.

The board's various committees will review the spending proposal this month and in early November.

The full board is expected to vote on the plan Nov. 13.

Budget planners working on the proposal this summer had to deal with a slipping home-construction business -- and the resulting decrease in property tax -- and a slowdown in sales-tax revenue growth, officials said.

"The economy is certainly exacting pressure on the budget," Gordon said. "We're not seeing growth in revenue that we've seen before."

But there is good news in the budget, Gordon said. The county's health-care costs aren't increasing, the proposal states, and interest earnings are rising.

Additionally, efforts to stabilize the long-struggling finances of the county-run Winchester House nursing home are paying off, officials said.

"It's a challenging year for us … but we're able to absorb a tight year," Gordon said.

The proposed budget includes money for several construction or building-improvement projects. Among them are the:

• Construction of a new branch courthouse in Park City.

• Start of construction of a new centralized permit facility in Libertyville, an effort that will continue into 2009.

• Remodeling of the public defender's office in Waukegan.

Officials also plan to continue repairing or replacing windows, heating and air-conditioning equipment and roofs at county-owned buildings throughout the area, Gordon said.

New transportation projects are included in the budget, too. They include an extension of Midlothian Road near Libertyville and the reconstruction of a stretch of Washington Street near Gurnee.