GOP candidates for Kane board chairman clash over property tax freeze

Republican candidates for Kane County Board chairman clashed over the viability of the county's property tax freeze during a candidate forum Tuesday night.

Challenger Ken Shepro repeatedly pointed to increases in the county's personnel costs since incumbent Chris Lauzen took office. He said a $9 million increase in salaries and benefits over the past few years will make a frozen levy untenable in coming years.

"You can't keep handing out raises to the unions and raising administrative salaries unless you have something offsetting that," Shepro said.

Shepro also said a lack of "any money for any capital projects to speak of" shows the county has had to cut back in order to give employee raises. Deferring capital projects and maintenance will ultimately decrease the quality of county services, Shepro said. For example, Shepro said, the need to build a new facility for the coroner is an ongoing cause of problems for county residents.

Lauzen defended county employee raises as not only being fair and necessary to keep the best employees but also as being affordable. He said the county has not had to dip into savings or reduce services. In fact, the county has had surpluses every year of his term that have contributed to savings and contingency funds.

"The test of whether you're going forward or backward each year is whether you have an excess of revenues over expenses," Lauzen said. "Do you have a surplus or a deficit? We've had a surplus and cut the debt of the county in half over the last three and a half years."