How Kane County can afford millions in raises

Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen provided a fiscal highlight reel of his tenure Tuesday in response to questions about employees' raises he believes are fueled by the pending election.

Board member Phil Lewis asked last week for an explanation of how the county can afford about $8.7 million in union and nonunion employee raises in recent years. The total includes $3 million the county's 1,300 employees will receive this year. About $30,000 of that will go to nonelected department heads who report to Lauzen. Lewis said Tuesday he had a "mental paradigm shift" when he saw those numbers in a new 2016 budget book printed a few weeks ago.

"All of us have committed ourselves to basically putting a freeze on the growth of government with our tax levy freeze," Lewis said. "The question comes front and center to each of us: Where is this nearly $9 million coming from?"

The county has expensive infrastructure needs in the form of moving the sheriff's fleet management facility and expanding the judicial center. Adding about 200 employees to the county's head count (from a low of 1,100) and paying them more money is moving in "the wrong direction" if shrinking government and socking away cash for infrastructure needs are real goals, Lewis said.

Lauzen told Lewis he should know the answer to all his questions. The financial progress of the county and all the budgets are items Lewis has voted on many times, Lauzen said.

"This is not new information. So you might wonder why the objections are being made six weeks into the fiscal year," Lauzen said. "We're in a political campaign season."

Lauzen ticked through a list of financial moves since he took office that he said provides more than enough wiggle room within the frozen tax levy to fund the raises. He pointed to the establishment of a $4 million emergency reserve fund, a $3.86 million reduction in the county's unfunded pension liability and the creation of a $1 million property tax freeze protection fund. The county has also reaped $24.4 million in surpluses since he took office thanks, in part, to having balanced budgets since 2013, Lauzen said.

"If that kind of performance was seen in the private sector, champagne bottle corks would have been going off," Lauzen said.

Ken Shepro, Lauzen's Republican opponent in the upcoming chairman election, agreed the county's department heads deserve raises. But he wasn't popping open any bottles of Dom Pérignon. He views the ongoing increases in overall employee costs as an unsustainable financial plan.

"Finding extra money in the drawer one year or having a windfall payment in another year is neither a sensible nor a sustainable policy," Shepro said. "If revenues stay flat and expenses continue to rise, and the chairman continues to sign every new union contract that comes along, it doesn't take a Harvard MBA to see that Springfield smoke and mirrors won't work here."