Kane County budget strikes out

Kane County's budget picture retained a red background Tuesday as it reported ongoing declines in sales tax, income tax and interest earnings on savings while several departments are either nearing or surpassing their entire allowance for the year.

"Sales tax revenue is of major concern at this time," read the memo Kane County Finance Committee members received Tuesday. "This projected sales tax shortfall will have major financial implications on the 2008 budget and a great affect on the 2009 budget."

Sales tax income is down more than $522,000 from last year at this same time. That's a drop of more than 6 percent. To date, sales tax totals have not seen a single month in 2008 that hasn't fallen below last year's totals. Indeed, the last time receipts were better than the year before was September 2007.

Exasperating the problem is a corresponding drop in income tax revenue, which is down 11 percent from last year's earnings.

And, reflecting the woes of anyone or any organization with savings, the county's interest income is only 38 percent of what it hoped to earn for the year with 75 percent of the calendar gone.

While the money coming in is less than expected, certain departments are spending more money than planned.

The cost for hosting adult prisoners outside the county already is more than twice what officials planned for this year. Even with the new Kane County jail open, the county has dropped nearly $1.3 million more than budgeted on prisoner outplacement. With a hiring freeze in place, it is unlikely an expansion of beds will occur at the jail as that would require the hiring of more corrections officers.

The hosting of juvenile offenders outside of county facilities is also nearly $1 million over budget with four months still remaining in the year. Also in the realm of law enforcement, the Kane County sheriff's department is nearly $20,000 over budget in the money it was allotted for fuel this year.

There has been a heavy emphasis on purchasing fuel-efficient vehicles this year as old vehicles are retired.

The county has also created an entirely new justification process departments must undertake when purchasing a vehicle.

Meanwhile, the county board is expected to increase the public safety and sheriff's E-911 budgets to reflect raises for employees under those budgets that will be higher than anticipated, and a one-time buyout of compensatory time earned for those same employees.

The total costs amount to about $570,000.

The county will cover the additional costs with money from its contingency fund.

The special election to fill Dennis Hastert's congressional seat when he retired early has also tagged the county about $500,000 in unexpected costs.

Departments will finalize their budget requests for next year within the next couple of weeks.

The county board will begin an earnest review of the requests in November.