Kane County Board has trump card in budget cut talks

Kane County Board elected officials may have taken a step this week toward giving themselves the ultimate trump card over any department head, elected or otherwise, who might be thinking about raising a stink about being asked to cut another 5.5 percent from their budget.

The county board's executive committee approved two paragraphs in a 20-page financial policy resolution this week that makes it clear they are the ones who hold the purse strings in the county. The paragraphs state no department head or elected official can spend beyond their budget in any fund. Once a department reaches its budget limit the county board can decide to simply stop paying any new bills generated by that department.

The resolution didn't see much debate by the executive committee, but the ironfisted sentiment it relates could be an issue as budget cut hearings begin in a couple weeks. Nonelected department heads have already told County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay they won't fight the cuts. But elected department heads, such as in the sheriff and state's attorney's offices, have already expressed frustration about not having input before the mandate for the budget cuts came down. They haven't agreed to anything yet.

McConnaughay said this week the county board has always had the authority to not pay the bills once a department reaches its budget, the board has just never made that move part of its standard operating policy. She said the pain the county is feeling now relates back to the annual jumps in income growth the county had seen in recent years thanks to its population explosion. A tanking housing market killed both trends.

"It's gone," McConnaughay said. "That cushion that we all got accustomed to no longer exists."

Board Member John Hoscheit, from St. Charles, echoed that sentiment in passing the resolution.

"We need to be clear here, this year, that we don't have the money to pay the bills," he said. "We have to attach consequences."