News

Kane County on track to increase use of riverboat money

Posted October 14, 2009 11:00 pm

James Fuller

Kane County is set to receive about $6 million as its cut from riverboat gambling proceeds to dole out to its departments and outside agencies for use in 2010. But the county board's Riverboat Subcommittee also learned that riverboat profits are down even as requests to use funds rises.

Just two years ago the county received more than $8 million from the riverboats.

The subcommittee reviewed 15 funding requests from the county's various government departments Wednesday. It eventually approved every request made for a total of $5.5 million. That includes setting aside $1 million for grants it will give to community agencies at a later date. That leaves about $500,000 to use for farmland preservation or whatever else the county board deems worthy.

What's worthy of funding is a hot button topic in the county as it faces budget woes in both 2009 and 2010. But Riverboat Subcommittee Chairman John Hoscheit said riverboat money is not to be used for funding department operations or solving the county's budget crisis. Hoscheit said the agreement made when the riverboat funding mechanism was put in place said the county's proceeds would only be used for education, environmental or economic development purposes.

"These funds are not money, from a business perspective, that we can rely on continually," Hoscheit said. "We're trying to stay away from funding programs on an ongoing basis."

The subcommittee did approve more than $500,000 of riverboat funding for the county's drug court program. Staff from court services said the program lost federal grant funding it previously received. Without the riverboat funding, drug court will not exist in 2010. Staff said that becomes a bigger problem as the state moves toward mandating drug courts in every county, but doesn't provide any funding to actually make drug court function.

Hoscheit recognized drug court is a notable exception to the policy against ongoing funding for programs. The subcommittee encouraged staff to continue seeking grants to fund drug court.

Also of note was a 191 percent increase in the riverboat funding request for county flood control projects. The county will use $476,000 more riverboat money than it did last year to fund flood control. Earlier this year, the county's development department brought a lengthy list of flood control projects to be funded through the general fund in its 2010 budget request. County board members rejected the project list at that meeting.

2010 Kane County Riverboat Fund internal funding requests: A list of all requests made by Kane County governmental departments. A list of requests from external community agencies will come in early 2010: 1. Juvenile Justice Center Bond Payment - $817,000 2. Water Resource Projects (for flood control) - $725,000 3. Child Advocacy Center (state's attorney's office) - $715,000 4. Drug Court Services and Special Resources (court services) - $568,000 5. Domestic Violence Services (state's attorney's office) - $446,000 6. Kane Kares (health department) - $429,000 7. Economic Development - $225,000 8. Tuition Reimbursement - $150,000 9. Drug Prosecution (state's attorney's office) - $123,000 10. Enterprise Surcharge - $79,000 11. Victim Coordinator Services (state's attorney's office) - $59,000 12. Stormwater Management Planning - $43,000 13. Juvenile Drug Court (court services) - $22,000 14. Auto Theft Task Force (state's attorney's office) - $21,000 15. Title IV-D (state's attorney's office) - $19,000 Also: $1 million for grants to community agencies Total: $5.5 million (totals include rounding) Source: Kane County Riverboat Subcommittee

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