Kane County planning for possible state income tax shortfall
The delay or disappearance of Kane County's portion of state income tax funds pushed officials to begin planning Wednesday for a possible $500,000 monthly revenue loss until state lawmakers solve the ongoing budget impasse.
Joe Onzick, the county's finance director, told county board members Wednesday that regularly scheduled state income tax payments and salary reimbursements had not been received, and he could find no evidence of whether or when they would. The county receives about $2.8 million a year for its share of the state income tax. It also is reimbursed for the salary costs of Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon, Public Defender Kelli Childress and Supervisor of Assessments Mark Armstrong.
"We'll certainly continue to pay their salaries," Onzick said. "We're assuming once the budget crisis is resolved that we'll have retroactive payments. If that turns out not to be true, then that's another set of problems we'll have to deal with."
The $500,000 monthly revenue loss can be temporarily addressed by the county's $50 million worth of general fund reserves.
"That's why we're not alarmed," Onzick said. "And this is just the first month we haven't noticed the state money coming in."
The problem might be related to a cash flow problem from state coffers. A federal judge scolded state officials Wednesday for not fully complying with a court order to pay providers of critical social services. John Stevens, an attorney for Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger's office, cited cash flow issues in response to the judge's reprimand.
Despite the stall in social services funding, Rich Carter, a spokesman for Munger, said the local share of state income taxes is set to go out as planned. Those funds are a part of state spending that doesn't require lawmaker action to release payments.
"We just sent out the June payment recently," Carter said.
Illinois Municipal League legislative director Joe McCoy said there have been no complaints about missing income tax money from other local governments. Carter speculated the payments might just be more delayed than usual, and that might fuel more worry.
Kane County recently spent several painstaking weeks debating the wording of a resolution addressing the state's budget problems. Balancing pressure from local unions against a desire to get on Gov. Bruce Rauner's best side, the resolution urged state lawmakers to pass the solutions that everyone agreed on and craft a balanced budget. The resolution did not weigh in on the more controversial elements of Rauner's platform, such as changes to workers' compensation and minimum wages. Disagreement on those issues has in part fueled the state's legislature's inability to pass a full state budget, which was due before the new fiscal year began on July 1.