McHenry board mulls spending additional $400,000

McHenry County administrators are confident the county's financial standing is strong enough heading into 2011 to allow for about $400,000 in supplemental spending next year to add staff, software and overtime.

But whether county board members will allow it remains to be seen.

Some board members balked at the suggestion additional spending next year, arguing that even if the county can afford it, doing so would send a bad message to residents who continue to struggle financially.

"It's awful out there, and here we are thinking about adding on staff," board member Paula Yensen said. "It's hard for me to justify that to my constituents.

"I think we need to tighten our belts and take a hard line with this," she added.

Supplemental spending has been a routine part of the county's budget process for about a decade, when board members imposed a maintenance budget system under which departments receive only the amount allocated the previous year plus necessary personnel increases. Any additional funding - to buy new equipment or add staff, for example - would come through a competitive supplemental budget process in which board members would allocate a limited amount of extra money to the most needed uses.

County administrators this year believe they can put $400,000 toward supplementals and provided board members a list of where the money could go. The list includes paying for rising healthcare costs for jail inmates, increased costs of psychological and special public defender services through court administration and several new positions in the county's information technology department.

Many of the items, including hiring a court security officer to guard a new judge's courtroom, are not really optional, County Administrator Peter Austin said.

"These really aren't avoidable," he said. "These are things we have to deal with."

Austin said the county can afford the supplementals in part because the county's financial outlook has grown significantly rosier in recent weeks.

In early August, officials projected a $3 million shortfall between county revenues and expenditures this year. That number, Austin said, is down to $800,000 and with a few financial adjustments, as well as departments not spending everything allocated in this year's budget, the county should end the fiscal year in the black.

"We know times are tough, but we really are better off than most local governments," he said. "We're going to finish the year in the black because of the restraint and fiscal management of our (department heads)."