The Kane County Board has delayed a decision about placing a referendum question for a new 1% sales tax on the fall ballot.
Officials have said funds from the proposed tax would help fix the county’s budget deficit.
Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog said last week that she would ask the Kane County Board to consider putting the proposed Special County Retailers’ Occupation Tax up for a referendum, which would allow residents of Kane County to vote during the November general election on whether or not they want the additional tax.
She brought that proposal before the county board at its meeting on Tuesday, but asked for a vote to be delayed until a future meeting so that the board could be given additional information about the proposed tax.
“This requires a thorough understanding and a conversation, and I’d like to have everybody have ample time to be able to ask any questions that you feel appropriate and make sure that you receive all the information that you need to make a good decision on passing this,” Pierog said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Kane County Board members voted unanimously to push the issue to the Finance and Budget Committee, which previously discussed the sales tax but took no formal action on it. That committee next meets on April 24.
If the sales tax referendum question is approved by the Finance and Budget Committee, it would then go before the Executive Committee for a vote before coming back before the Kane County Board.
The Finance and Budget Committee and the Executive Committee have both previously discussed the possible sales tax referendum, and members of those committees appeared in favor of the idea. However, no official decision was made at either meeting.
The county is currently paying for its budget deficits with its cash reserves, which officials say will be used up by 2027 or 2028 if there is not a significant cut to expenses or increase in revenue.
Pierog previously said that if the sales tax measure is put on the ballot and approved by voters in the November general election, the county will not need to raise property taxes to deal with its deficit.
At the proposed 1% tax rate, Kane County would have an extra $60 million to spend each year, Kane County Finance Director Kathleen Hopkinson previously said.
Those paying the tax would see an extra $1 tax on every $100 they spend or an extra penny for every dollar they spend on items covered by the tax in Kane County.
Revenue from the sales tax is proposed to be used for public safety. Since the county currently spends the majority of its funds on public safety, the proposed sales tax revenue would free up a part of those funds to go to other departments and offices, Hopkinson previously said.
In 2024, for example, the county has $75 million budgeted for public safety, she said during a presentation to the Finance and Budget Committee on March 27.
The Kane County Board has until August to decide on the referendum, Pierog said at that same committee meeting.
County board members and officials are also looking at ways to limit the amount of money the county is spending each year.
To limit next year’s budget deficit, Hopkinson previously said she advised county departments and offices that they should keep their budgets within 3% of their 2024 budgets and should limit the amount of vacant positions they budget for.
This will be “very difficult” because contractual services continue to rise in price, leaving less money left over for everything else, she said during her presentation to the Finance and Budget Committee.
If the county were to cut costs instead of raising taxes, it would need to cut around 15% of its total workforce, according to a presentation by District 22 Kane County Board member Vern Tepe at the same meeting.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
