OK, probably it’s not going to make the New York Times e-book best-seller list, but if you’re looking for a good, light read, how about going online to check out the Kane County draft budget?

The 2015 Draft Budget document has been posted to the Kane County Finance Department website. If you prefer hard copy, it is also available in the County Clerk’s Office as well as the County Board Office for public viewing.

The budget is required to be on public display for 15 calendar days before it is adopted by the County Board.  The County Board is scheduled to vote on adopting the budget at its Nov. 10 meeting.

The draft document presents the budget data in its “bare bones” form, meaning there is no explanatory information included. It is simply the budgeted amounts sorted by fund, by department and by category and contains both summary and line item detail.

For Kane County Finance Department Executive Director Joe Onzick, this really is good reading. But Onzick also understands that it’s not the seventh book in the Harry Potter series. As far as we know, at least, nobody camped overnight in front of the County Clerk’s Office for the first chance to get a gander when it went on display this week.

“Since there is no explanatory information contained in the budget document, so I thought it may be helpful to highlight a few things,” Onzick said.

Key points regarding the 2015 operating budget include:

(1) There is no increase to the property tax levy. (The property tax levy has remained exactly the same for three years in a row.)

(2) The overall county budget is reduced by 1.2 percent.  (The General Fund budget is 2.8 percent higher and the Special Revenue Fund budget total is 3 percent lower).

(3) The increase in the General Fund budget was funded by an increase in sales tax and income tax revenue.

(4) The budget provides for a 2 percent salary increase for non-union, non-elected employees.

(5) The budget includes wage increases for union employees that is in accordance with their collective bargaining agreements.

(6)  There is a 6.2 percent rate increase for health insurance.

(7) There is an 8 percent rate decrease for dental insurance.

Want to know seven capital projects in the 2014 budget?

• Check out the Kane County Connects story on Monday, Oct. 17! (Who knew you could tease a budget story? 🙂

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• Here is the link to the budget document on the county website.