Cutting Kane Co. Board salaries may mean little to budget woes

A more pessimistic view of a symbolic victory is to simply call it a loss. The Kane County Board may be at a loss to help solve a $3.8 million budget deficit no matter what symbolism they could attach to giving up their pay raises.

Indeed, depending on how the law is interpreted, it might not amount to even a penny's worth of progress in cutting the budget even if all the county board members and the chairman give up their pay raises.

County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay first mentioned the idea of her fellow elected officials sharing in the pain of budget problems by refusing their raises last year when the county implemented a hiring freeze to address a budget deficit. The county still finished the year in the red.

This year, the budget woes are worse as tax income plummets. While the county board contemplates everything from furloughs to layoffs, McConnaughay renewed her call to her fellow board members to forgo their raises earlier this month when the Daily Herald started to check to see if any of the board members actually gave up their raises.

According to the county board's Attorney Ken Shepro, the chairman is the only person who donated her raise back by giving it to the county's Veterans' Assistance Commission. The hitch is that commission is a special revenue fund not supported directly by the general fund. The general fund is where the budget problems are.

The decision to donate the money to the commission is based on an opinion written by the Kane County state's attorney's office. The Dec. 17, 2008 opinion says an elected officer may not decline a raise once it's voted into law. The elected officer can only cut a personal check and donate it back.

"In particular, a county board is permitted by statute to accept charitable financial donations for aid to a person in need of assistance," reads the opinion. "We suggest that an elected official, who desires to return a portion of their salary to the taxpayers, is statutorily permitted to make a donation to the county general assistance fund."

The Daily Herald asked if the county board can then take an amount identical to the donation and redirect it from the fund to the specific departments where funding shortfalls exist. County staff directed all such inquiries to the state's attorney's office for a response. That office has not responded to inquiries.

But what would it mean if all the county board members and the chairman donated their pay raises back? It depends on what raise. In December 2008, the salary of the chairman increased by $10,000 to $95,000 a year. County board member salaries increased by $4,500. With 26 board members plus the chairman, that amounts to $127,000. However, both the chairman and the board members are set to receive another raise in December 2009. The chairman's salary will increase by $3,325 to $98,325 a year. The county board salaries increase by $1,000 to a total of $23,000 yearly.

No matter the amount McConnaughay said county board members should cut their salaries.

"You can't ask other people to cut back if you're not willing to do it yourself," she said.

But if it doesn't address the budget deficit, the senior Democrat on the board, Jerry Jones of Aurora, says he's not interested in the symbolism of sharing the pain.

"The question is, can we legitimately give it back to the general fund, and I don't think we can," Jones said. "If we can't, then what's the sense of it? If we can, then in my view, I won't have a problem doing it."