Budget stories generally aren’t at the top of residents’ “must read” list.

This fall, however, watching Kane County chip away at an initial $2 million-plus budget gap has been interesting — a little bit like watching a television game show or reality TV, a local-government version version of The Price Is Right meets The Biggest Loser.

There is some drama involved, for sure.

The way it works, according to Kane County Executive Finance Director Joe Onzick, is that all the departments and elected offices submit an initial total of projected revenues and expenditures for the 2015 fiscal year. The calculations include a 2 percent salary increase for non-union employees, based in part on numbers set in prior union contract negotiations, and an assumed 9.5 percent increase in health-care costs.

When the numbers were tallied up and reported in early August, Kane County found itself facing a potential budget gap of $2,088,155.

From early August to Aug. 27, the gap was reduced to $1,092,885, and you can see basically how that was done in the chart below. There were small increases in categories such as liquor license revenue and some voluntary cuts, notably $25,000 from the State’s Attorney’s Office projected budget, but most of the difference had to do with what Onzick referred to as “fine-tuning” the budget calculations.

Basically that was a matter of applying solid accounting practices to the submitted budgets. For example, the gap was trimmed by more than $188,000 by looking more closely at sewer and water calculations.

“Rather than using gross amounts, we were able to look at utility bills to better gauge actual expense, from which we could project future expense,” Onzick said.

The Finance Department partnered with Court Services managers to trim more than $333,000. They did so, again, by taking a deeper dive into the data. They looked at youth-counselor positions, which have a tendency for higher turnover. Since it takes time to find and replace vacant positions, the actual costs are lower than the projected costs.

“We (also) found there were reduced costs for health and dental for youth counselor positions,” Onzick said. “Primarily, they don’t opt for family coverage, and we were budgeting for full family coverage.”

From Aug. 27 to Sept. 1, the budget gap declined from $1,092,885 to $795,911. The majority of the difference came from a probation salary reimbursement from the state of Illinois.

Where will Kane County look for the remaining $795,000?

Fee increases for Sheriff’s Office services is one possibility. Onzick said a cost-of-service study is expected to be completed by Sept. 17, and a preliminary report is likely to be available before then.

“I think that’s where the potential for (additional revenue) exists,” Onzick said.

A potential savings place is in the category of health insurance.

“We believe there will be further cuts to the health insurance projected rates as a result of negotiations,” Onzick said. “It probably won’t be a large amount (because) most of the expense is the result of our actual claims experience, and you can’t change that. Where there may be savings is through the administrative side.”

The difficult task for policymakers and staff, of course, is trying to keep the tax levy flat while having to deal with the reality of salary increases and rising insurance costs.

“Our challenge, then, is to become more efficient in utilizing the resources we have,” Onzick said. “It’s the age-old problem of being able to do more with less and how to enhance our revenue. The reality is, this is very difficult to achieve.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people I work with on this, their budgets to begin with are very reasonable and very lean. It’s not like there’s a hidden cushion to cut into. Trying to find that is almost impossible.”

Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen asked board members and office-holders to dig deep in the final days for ideas on how to add revenue or trim projected costs.

“We do have about two to three weeks left. Now is the time to speak up,” he said. “We’ll move the budget, put it on public display and have a vote in November.”

 

Progress in Closing the Budget Gap — Fiscal year 2015

Original Budget Gap — $2,088,155

County Board

• Increased liquor license revenue over originally submitted budget ($5,000)
• Increased expenditures over originally submitted budget ($15,041)
• Reduced riverboat grant over originally submitted budget ($29,500)

Building Management

• Utilities — Revised sewer and water budget calculations ($188,745)

Court Services

• Health and dental ($140,349)
• Floating headcount ($143,472)
• Juvenile custody placement ($50,000)

State’s Attorney’s Office

• Miscellaneous voluntary cuts ($25,000)

Health Insurance

• Rate increase projection reduced from 9.5 percent to 6.3 percent ($269,376)
• Rate increase reduced from 6.3 percent to 4.8 percent — savings from implementing a pharmacy utilization management program and reducing administrative fees ($126,270)

Coroner’s Office

• Flat budget ($91,599)

Budget Gap as of Aug. 27,2014 — $1,092,885

New cuts

• Probation salary reimbursement increase ($285,874)
• Judicial Center / Juvenile Justice Center water surcharge ending April 2015 ($2,250)
• Sheriff / County Jail water surcharge ending April 2015 ($8,850)

Budget Gap as of Sept. 1, 2014 — $795,911

 

Read More

• Kane County’s $2M budget gap narrows to $800,000
• Kane County works to reduce $2M budget gap
• Gap closing in Kane County’s budget
• Kane County facing millions in budget gap
• Kane County closing in on balanced budget for 2015