Kane County ‘still a great place,’ but pension trouble looms

Kane County’s taken some lumps in the past year with double-digit unemployment, politicians suing each other and elected officials being indicted, but it is “still a great place to live.”

That was the main theme of County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay’s state of the County address Wednesday. Speaking at a golf course in Sugar Grove, McConnaughay focused on the county’s response to the slow economy and future financial challenges. She said the county is in good financial shape overall thanks to spending cuts in advance of the downturn and a reduction in county employee head count.

Critics would point to multiple exceptions to the county’s hiring freeze in recent years and a lawsuit over pay raises to county department heads as ongoing concerns, but McConnaughay pointed to a bottom line in the county’s general fund that shows $2 million in budget reductions this year.

“Kane County sits on one of the most solid fiscal seats in the state of Illinois,” McConnaughay said.

But financial challenges loom both in the present and the future regarding pension and health care costs of county employees and elected officials. The county added $500,000 to its pension payments this year for a total budget burden of $7 million. The health care bill for the county’s 1,400 employees hit about $12 million this year.

“It’s not that our employees are not deserving of it, but with costs increasing more than 10 percent a year, our health insurance plan is not sustainable,” McConnaughay said.

Kane County still counted more than 24,000 residents as unemployed in December. But McConnaughay said she’s proud to count 3,600 new jobs in the county this past year.

“Kane County saw more growth in jobs than just about any other county in the area except for Cook,” she said.

The need for jobs and government services will continue to grow. Although population growth in the once booming county has slowed, McConnaughay said she fully expects it to return.

“The 800,000 people projection by 2040 is still on target and, in fact, could be a low mark for what is expected to happen,” she said.

She called on the federal government to speed up the funding and review processes for major transportation and infrastructure projects to accommodate that future growth.

The recently completed Stearns Road Bridge project took more than 20 years to materialize.