Kane chairman candidates differ on taxes, spending

Managing Kane County's tax levy may be the only duty of the county board chairman some taxpayers care about.

The two Republican candidates for the job disagree on how strong of a line in the sand the current tax levy freeze will be going forward.

Ken Shepro, who's challenging incumbent Chairman Chris Lauzen in the GOP's primary March 15, said the current freeze fails to take advantage of potential revenue from new construction and new residents coming into the county each year.

"You could have included the new growth, and it would not have raised taxes one dime for existing taxpayers," Shepro said. "But they haven't done that, and it's money that is lost forever. It is simply a mistaken approach to say we can't look at how to freeze the levy in a responsible fashion. Eventually, there will be a day of reckoning."

Lauzen says the freeze is a hard line philosophy against any unnecessary tax increase. He pointed to his successful fight against the Kane County Forest Preserve District's consideration of putting new growth into its tax levy the past two years.

"When you start mixing in new growth you lose credibility on a promise to freeze the levy," Lauzen said. "When you say this is the line, and we ain't going over it, people understand that. The reality is we've lowered the cost of county government, per taxpayer, because we haven't included the new construction into the levy."

Lauzen said keeping the levy fully frozen is equal parts cutting costs and finding new, non-taxpayer income sources.

Shepro concedes that even the new growth money isn't needed right now because the county has banked surpluses the previous few years. But that also may be too much of a good thing, he said.

"Why don't we reduce the levy and give the money back to the taxpayers?" Shepro said. "I'm sure every taxpayer would say I have better use for that money than to have it put into a reserve fund."

Shepro also criticized some of the county's spending decisions under Lauzen, including the $100,000 annual expense of the Kane County Connects newsletter and the $1.7 million shooting range for the sheriff. He said the newsletter's main function seems to be promoting Lauzen, and there's no evidence of the shooting range being used to any great degree, even by sheriff's deputies.

Lauzen said moving forward, lowering the county's health insurance costs and bringing a new waste-to-fuel industry to the county will be a major focus. He also hopes to sell the county's excess fiber optic capacity and lease space on county light poles to cellphone companies.

However, even if the county is successful in bringing in new money, Lauzen has no plans to give any of it back to taxpayers.

"I've never gone there because I know you can never satisfy that appetite," he said. "If you give back $1, they want $2."

The Kane County Connects newsletter is a needed and valuable communication tool between the county and its constituents, Lauzen said. He views the sheriff's shooting range as "a freebie" because it was paid for with money generated by the sheriff's office.

Lauzen said voters need look no further than the county's financial numbers to judge his first term in office.

"We've improved to a AA+ bond rating, frozen the tax levy, balanced the budget every year," he said. "We have clean, outside auditor opinions, reduced the county debt and established reserves each year. People may say it's all nickels and dimes. Where I come from, those nickels and dimes count."