Kane County Board OKs $402 million 2027 budget, without use of cash from dwindling reserve fund

After years of balancing its budget by dipping into a dwindling reserve fund, the Kane County Board on Wednesday OK’d a $402.9 million county budget for fiscal year 2027 that doesn’t, at this point, rely on using any cash reserves.

The board voted 13-9 in favor of the budget, as some members took issue with things like the reallocation of some sales tax money away from county transportation spending and the county’s planned vote before the year’s end on raising its property tax levy. The new fiscal year begins on Dec. 1.

However, while a near-term draining of the county’s emergency funds appears to have been averted for the time being, some uncertainty remains about possible amendments to the budget, the county’s fund balance and how its reserves can be rebuilt in the future.

Like last year, the county board’s budget-making efforts of late have largely centered around addressing a looming budget shortfall in the county’s general fund.

For the past three years, the board has dipped into its general fund’s general account to balance its budget — and has used money from other general fund reserve accounts to balance the budget dating back as far as 2020, according to Kane County Finance Director Kathleen Hopkinson.

For years, county staff cautioned that using reserves this way wouldn’t be an option forever, warning that the county had to make significant cuts or find new revenue before 2027 to avoid falling below 90 days’ worth of reserve funding to cover county expenses — having 90 days’ worth of funding available is best practice, according to Hopkinson.

Last year during the budgeting process, the board took a variety of measures to close the gap. But it ended up using about $6 million in cash reserves to balance the county’s fiscal year 2026 budget.

This year, the county board indicated plans to use little to no reserves to balance the general fund portion of the county’s fiscal year 2027 budget, tasking board members with finding other ways to balance it.

The county’s budget is divided largely into two sections — the general fund and the various special funds, which represent dollars restricted to certain uses. The general fund, the county’s primary operating fund, is the one that has been facing a shortfall.

The general fund spending in the 2027 budget totals about $131.6 million, according to county documents. That’s about $1.4 million higher than the county’s 2026 amended budget, per the county’s numbers.

But that number is — at least at this point — balanced with the county’s expected revenue, thereby not requiring the county to further spend down its reserves.

The county’s other non-general fund expenses total a little over $271 million.

The total budget, then, amounts to just under $403 million in projected spending for fiscal year 2027, about $7 million less than last year.

In looking to balance next year’s budget, the board requested 5% cuts be made across the county’s departments and offices, as well as looked to revenue-related solutions — like reallocating some of the county’s mass transit sales tax funds away from transportation costs and capital projects toward public safety and judicial costs, a move that the county also made the year prior.

The mass transit sales tax helps fund public transportation in Cook and the collar counties. One-third of the 0.75% tax collected in Kane and the other collar counties is distributed back to each county for it to spend on transportation and public safety.

Last year, Kane County also hiked its motor fuel tax and added a 1% grocery tax, replacing the state’s grocery tax that was set to expire, to generate additional revenue.

And the 2027 budget relies on a planned property tax levy increase of 2.7%. In May, the board voted to use that rate as the planned levy hike for the year in the budget, but has not voted on the increase itself.

That 2.7% is the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, to be used for tax extensions in 2026, for taxes to be paid in 2027.

The county expects to see an additional roughly $2.3 million in its general fund from property taxes in fiscal year 2027.

mmorrow@chicagotribune.com