Kane Co. budgets get hard looks

The first round of 2011 budget pitches for Kane County departments featured a lot of zeros and animosity for anyone with the title of lobbyist in front of their name.

Tuesday saw county government departments under the full control of the county board present budgets for 2011 asking either for no increase or increases of less than 1 percent over last year. For the most part, those requests met with positive responses from a county board anxious to prove it can keep its own costs under control.

The board will hear requests from departments run by other elected officials in the next couple of weeks, a few of which have seen repeated cost overruns the past two years.

Once the full picture of requests is known, the county board will then have to decide if it can live with a flat budget and minimal increases, or if another year that may feature a continued drop in county revenue will require budget requests with some minus signs in front of the numbers.

County board members already showed Tuesday that money spent on lobbyists and consultants will once again be a target for cuts. Just about every county department that presented a budget with a line item for "contracts and consulting" was grilled on what that money is spent on by County Board Member Jim Mitchell.

"My concern of course is lobbyist fees, particularly since we're in the process of looking at state money and suggesting we not take it," Mitchell said. The comment referred to money for the county's health department recently rejected by the county in favor of downsizing.

"Why would we have people lobbying for us to get state money?"

Mitchell said it should use the leverage that comes with paying to be a member of a number of government associations to secure funds that it needs.

County Board members also showed they'll pay close attention to fees various departments charge. County Board Member Phil Lewis said he wants all departments that charge a fee for any service to make sure the fee covers the full cost of providing the service. Doing so would take pressure off the county's tax revenues to make up any difference.

County Board Member Cristina Castro showed she'll also pay close attention to the employee salaries. Many of the departments without union workers pitched budgets with no money for pay raises.

The health department will still have union employees even after laying off about half its staff in the downsizing. Castro said she wants a full accounting of the salaries and job duties of the employees in the remaining positions.