Kane County Board OKs roughly $2.3 million property tax levy hike for next year’s budget

Kane County is looking at a roughly $2.3 million property tax levy hike for 2027 as its county board’s efforts to clamp down on cash reserve spending and solve the county’s budgetary woes continue.

On Tuesday, the Kane County Board OK’d measures setting the tax levies for its various funds — for taxes to be paid in 2027. The bulk of the increase above last year’s levy will go toward the county’s general fund, its main operating fund.

The approval comes just a week after the board OK’d a $402.9 million budget for the new fiscal year starting Dec. 1. The approved budget relies on the now-approved property tax hike to be balanced.

Over the past few years, the county board’s annual budget-making efforts have largely centered around addressing a looming shortfall in the county’s main operating fund. For several years, the county board had been spending down its reserves to balance its budgets.

But county staff has long cautioned that using reserves this way wouldn’t be an option forever, warning that significant cuts would need to be made or new revenue found before 2027 to ensure the county maintained 90 days’ worth of reserves in its general fund to cover county expenses, which county policy dictates be maintained.

The board has taken both cost-cutting and revenue-generating measures in an attempt to avoid further spending down of the county’s emergency funds.

Though the county has technically already fallen below the 90-day threshold in its general fund’s general account, the narrowly-passed $402.9 million budget for the coming year doesn’t, at least at this point, use any of the cash reserves in question.

Nearly all the revenue from the roughly $2.3 million property tax levy hike would go toward the county’s general fund. Property tax dollars make up nearly one-third of the total revenue expected for the county’s general fund in fiscal year 2027.

The total levy amount approved Tuesday for the county’s funds is about $64.9 million, up roughly $2.3 million from the 2026 levy amount. Nearly $40 million of that will go toward the general fund.

Though approving tax levies for the county’s funds sets the total amount the county plans to collect, the actual property tax amount residents pay is not yet set.