In the latest push to solve its multimillion-dollar budget shortfall for 2026, Kane County is considering using earned interest to close the gap.
At a meeting on Wednesday, Kane County Board Finance Committee Vice Chair Bill Lenert noted the possibility that interest earned through the county Treasurer’s Office may be able to balance the budget, and provided an update about the county’s budgeting process.
Lenert said that he, the State’s Attorney’s Office and Treasurer’s Office think the county may be able to balance its budget using the earned interest rather than pulling money out of cash reserves, which the county has been doing since 2023.
This past year, for example, the county budgeted the use of roughly $27 million in reserve funds to pay for expenses in its general fund, according to past reporting.
But the county is on pace to dip below its required 90-day reserves in 2027 if revenue and spending remain level, according to past reporting.
So, attempting to avoid the use of reserve funds to balance this year’s budget, the board has been suggesting and voting on various revenue-generating and cost-cutting measures for this year.
As for the earned interest idea, Lenert said that they have used earned interest but had previously been told they couldn’t use any more than they already were, but “that opinion has changed some at this point.”
But whether more earned interest is available depends on which county funds’ interest can be moved legally, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office. Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser, in a statement, said her opinion hasn’t changed, but that she would look at the smaller fund items again.
The suggestion is still being discussed, Lenert noted, but said their “hope is that the discrepancy between the revenues and the expenses, which is about $3.5 million, might be able to be made up in part, if not in all” with the interest income.
At the county’s Finance Committee meeting a month earlier, Kane County Treasurer Chris Lauzen had expressed support for using interest to plug the gap.
“If we use the resources that we have,” Lauzen said, “then perhaps we don’t have to take some of the cuts that are so painful.”
In an email to The Beacon-News, Lauzen explained that the county has generated about $61.2 million in interest earned from 2021 to this past July.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Lenert provided an update on where the various departments’ and offices’ budgets stand. He said the county’s department heads have all agreed to the board’s recommended expense reductions and that their numbers are “in compliance with” the board’s request. The county board is still considering how to balance its own budget for the year and pay for the county’s strategic plan.
The board has also OK’d expense allocations for the county’s elected offices, but Lenert said it has been discussing possible revisions with several elected officials. He noted that elected officials are being asked to, if they choose to, submit revised budgets within the next week.
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
