An unfunded state mandate is sparking Kane County to consider raising its court security fee from $25 to $47.90 — pronto.

In a report to the Kane County Executive Committee on Wednesday, Finance Director Joe Onzick suggested the county pass an ordinance “as soon as possible” to avoid a budget shortfall.

The increase would be made possible by Senate Bill 0804, which authorizes the county to set the Court Security fee according to an acceptable cost study was passed by both houses and sent to the governor on June 18. The bill is awaiting Gov. Bruce Rauner’s signature.

“In anticipation of the governor signing this bill, we’ve updated the Cost Study for Court Security that was prepared last year to reflect the most current information,” Onzick said.

The updated report indicates that the county should be charging a court security fee of $47.90 to fully recover the cost of providing court security.

“I therefore strongly recommend that the county pass an ordinance as soon as possible after the governor signs the bill,” Onzick said.

Increasing the fee from $25 to $47.90 will enable court security to be self-funded and eliminate the need for a subsidy from the county’s General Fund.

Onzick said that if the revenue trend continues and if the fee is not increased, the current direct subsidy of $618,000 may need to be increased to $883,000 by year end, and may need to increase to $1.118 million for Fiscal Year 2016.

“The reason these subsidy amounts are less than the loss of $1,223,000 mentioned in the cost study report, is that the subsidies do not cover the indirect cost of $286,000, and in FY15 Court Security was also able to utilize $54,000 of cash-on-hand,” Onzick said.

The bill, sponsored in the Senate by Linda Holmes and others, was championed by the Kane County Board Legislative Committee.

In criminal, local ordinance, county ordinance, traffic and conservation cases, the fee would be assessed against the defendant upon a plea of guilty, stipulation of facts or findings of guilty, resulting in a judgment of conviction, or order of supervision, or sentence of probation without entry of judgment pursuant to Section 10 of the Cannabis Control Act,” and other stipulations, according to the bill’s text.

The full Kane County Board could consider the ordinance as soon as its July 14 meeting, if the bill is signed by the governor.

Partial Text of the Bill

In criminal, local ordinance, county ordinance, traffic and conservation cases, the fee would be assessed against the defendant upon a plea of guilty, stipulation of facts or findings of guilty, resulting in a judgment of conviction, or order of supervision, or sentence of probation without entry of judgment pursuant to Section 10 of the Cannabis Control Act, Section 410 of the Illinois Controlled Substances Act, Section 70 of the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act, Section 12-4.3 or subdivision (b)(1) of Section 12-3.05 of the Criminal Code of 1961 or the Criminal Code of 2012, Section 10-102 of the Illinois Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependency Act, Section 40-10 of the Alcoholism and Other Drug Abuse and Dependency Act, or Section 10 of the Steroid Control Act. In setting such fee, the county board may impose, with the concurrence of the Chief Judge of the judicial circuit in which the county is located by administrative order entered by the Chief Judge.

Read More About Senate Bill 0804