Kane County starting to look ahead to another grim budget year

Kane County leaders haven't figured out their budget for the current year, but they already are beginning to take a peak at what next year might look like. And it's not pretty.

Building management and information technology departments presented their early budget plans for next year on Thursday to the county board's administrative committee. Before department heads were even allowed to speak, Finance Director Cheryl Patelli prefaced the conversation by saying all the tax revenues that are down this year will probably continue to be down next year and no one should expect any new property taxes from new development in the county. The county will also have more expenses next year as it is an election year.

"I can tell you it's not going to look good," Patelli said.

The two departments offered budgets identical to what they have right now. Those budgets were met with a question all the other county departments are likely to hear soon: "If you had to cut another 5.5 percent, how would you do it?" committee Chairman Jim Mitchell said.

Tim Harbaugh, who is in charge of county property maintenance, said he could cut a little here and there but pretty soon county property will be a little bit too cool in winter, a bit to hot in the summer and buildings just won't look as nice as they do now.

"You're drifting into a point where we'll do the mandated maintenance that we need to do, but (what we don't do) will start to show," Harbaugh said.

Roger Fahnestock, executive director of the IT department, said he's working to save money by moving more toward more electronic documents. However, another 5.5 percent cut would likely mean cutting some staff, he said.