County ties up big chunk of RTA sales tax money in transportation

The biggest roadblock to Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez getting a bigger piece of the RTA sales tax money to balance his budget might be the spending of the funds that's already occurred.

On Tuesday, the Kane County Board dedicated $40 million of RTA money over the next five years to paying off bonds it will issue to fund the county's priority list of transportation projects. One of the main projects on that list is the Interstate 90/Route 47 interchange, an area some describe as the worst bottleneck in the county. Overall, the bonds will create the upfront money that will trigger the release of $180 million in guaranteed federal matching dollars to accomplish a wish-list that's already had several years of work and money dropped into it.

The county is projected to receive $10.7 million a year in RTA sales tax funds during the life of the bond repayment. Paying off the bonds will dedicate about $8.4 million of that for the next five years. That leaves about $2.3 million, but some of that is already committed as well. Perez will already receive $500,000 from the RTA tax for the replacement of vehicles. He wants another $900,000 on top of that to supplement his operations.