County board sets preliminary tax levy increase at 7 percent

With pencils sharp and an eye toward vastly lowering the initial 27.8 percent increase in county department budget requests, Cook County commissioners met in special session Monday, September 29 and after 2 1/2 hours of wrangling over numbers decided to set a maximum tax levy increase of 7 percent for 2015.

Cook County Auditor- Treasurer Braidy Powers presented information depicting the county’s financial obligation to its mandated programs and a look at requests from non-mandated programs. The board discussed ways they could pare down some of those requests. No specific action was taken on any of the budget line items, but the board talked to Tim Nelson, director of planning and zoning and asked him about some of his items in his budget.

Nelson said he had pulled $23,000 out of the landfill development reserve fund (used to purchase electronic permitting software), “which was originally plugged into the planning and zoning budget, but we decided to take it out of the reserve fund instead to help ease the burden of the levy.”

Commissioner Bruce Martinson asked Nelson what effect taking $40,000 out of the landfill reserve fund would have on his department. Nelson said he used that for unexpected repairs or for items he would need to purchase. “It just takes away our flexibility as we go forward,” Nelson said, adding that he had a landfill container that has been welded but may need to be replaced at a cost of about $17,000 if it fails this year. “I may have to come to you and ask for funds to get a new container if this money is taken away.”

Last year the county board capped any potential levy increase at 2.9 percent. However, they dipped $513,241 into the county’s fund balance to keep it that low.

Commissioner Garry Gamble said it was his guess that the board would have two to three more special sessions to go over all of the county’s department budgets line by line before setting the budget at its December 16 or December 23 meeting.

Auditor-Treasurer Powers told the board it must legally set its final budget and levy for the county by the last day of December.

The commissioners beat the state’s deadline by one day for setting a proposed maximum levy and budget. Each county must present a proposed county budget and levy by September 30, 2014.

Because of the board’s actions the levy cannot exceed 7 percent, but, as Commissioners Sue Hakes, Bruce Martinson and Gamble noted, they will work to reduce it further. Commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk was absent from the meeting.

In the last three years, the Unassigned General Fund, the county’s “reserves” have been:

Committed or restricted fund balances for various departments or services have been: