Kane coroner asks for budget increase due to jump in autopsies in 2016

In years past, a request from Kane County Coroner Rob Russell for an extra $75,000 might have led to fireworks at a county meeting.

A resolution to adjust his 2016 budget sailed through the judicial and public safety committee meeting Thursday with little comment from the committee and none from County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen.

The costs are all due to investigating more deaths than expected when he made the 2016 budget, Russell said.

"I had budgeted for 150 autopsies, and to our dismay, we had 194," Russell said, in the budget year that ended Nov. 30.

An autopsy costs about $1,125, he said, and that does not include the cost of testing fluids and tissues for drugs and other toxins.

The unexpected increase in autopsies seemed to come primarily in the later half of the year.

Committee member T.R. Smith said a local funeral director told him that it was a "bad December." Russell agreed, saying the office did twice as many autopsies as it had in 2015.

"The heroin epidemic is continuing to roll along and people are dying every day," he said.

He said there was an 86 percent increase in deaths due to vehicle crashes in fiscal year 2016, and a 55 percent increase in drug deaths. Suicides were up 9 percent.

Committee Chairman John Martin said the request for the budget adjustment was not unexpected because Russell warned them last month about the increase in autopsies, and because Russell had worked with Finance Director Joe Onzick to determine the budget request.

The request still needs votes by the executive committee and the full county board.