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Chicago Tribune
05-03-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Kane County Board holds town hall meeting on sales tax referendum in advance of April vote
On Monday, the Kane County Board hosted an in-person town hall meeting in Aurora to answer questions about the sales tax referendum question being put to voters in the county on April 1. Next month, Kane County voters will be asked whether they support a 0.75% sales tax increase meant to boost funding for the county's public safety services. The town hall was held at the Santori Public Library in downtown Aurora, and offered residents a chance to learn and ask questions about the referendum in advance of next month's election. District 4 Kane County Board member Mavis Bates gave a presentation at Monday's town hall, emphasizing the public safety services the funds generated by the referendum would be earmarked for, per state law. The majority of the county's funds already go toward public safety costs, Bates said on Monday. 'That's our main job, as it should be,' she said Monday. The presentation also highlighted some of the public safety services that would be funded in part by the referendum, such as prosecuting child pornography cases, veterans suicide prevention support programs and opioid abuse prevention services. Bates also noted that some of the funds generated by a successful referendum would go toward upgrading aging public safety facilities. A sales tax increase of 0.75% means buyers would pay 75 cents more in tax on every $100 they spend on items covered by the tax in Kane County. The county has said there are exemptions for essential items like groceries and prescription medications, which Bates noted are determined by Illinois tax law. Bates said the referendum proposes a sales tax, rather than a property tax, so as to share costs with visitors to Kane County and because homeowners already contribute 'their fair share.' 'We've been working on a flat budget,' Bates said Monday, noting that the county has not seen a property tax increase – aside from increases for new construction – in more than a decade. 'Imagine if your family had had no raises, your Social Security checks had had no cost of living increases. … Our belt just keeps getting tighter and tighter and tighter.' Bates said the sales tax offers another revenue option besides a property tax increase. Separate from the proposed sales tax measure, the county board's approved 2025 budget does include a $2 million property tax levy increase, the first hike in the levy since 2013 except increases to account for new construction, according to past reporting. The property tax levy increase, excluding an increase for new construction, was proposed for 3.4% to match the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation set by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the sales tax referendum only addresses public safety expenses, Kane County Finance Director Kathleen Hopkinson has previously said that the referendum would have a spillover effect, freeing up some of the funds going toward public safety already to other departments and offices. According to the county, services that would receive revenue from the successful passage of the referendum question include the offices of the sheriff, state's attorney, public defender, coroner and circuit clerk; KaneComm 911; Public Health and the Office of Emergency Management. The proposed 0.75% sales tax hike is expected to generate upwards of $50 million annually, Hopkinson previously said. If voters don't approve the referendum question, the county would have to dip into its 90-day reserve funds to balance the 2026 budget, according to past reporting, provided spending remains about the same as 2025. That would leave the county with only about $8 million above the required 90-day reserves, Hopkinson has said. A sales tax referendum has been top of mind for the county board for months, touted by some as a possible solution to the county's cash flow problems. The county has been dipping into its cash reserves to balance its budget, which officials have previously said will be used up by 2027 or 2028 if spending or revenue doesn't change. For example, the county's proposed $416.6 million budget for 2025 uses $29.3 million in reserves from its general fund, not including millions in cuts proposed by the Kane County Board Finance Committee. The referendum wouldn't help balance the county budget until 2026, however, Hopkinson previously said. In September, the Kane County Board approved putting the sales tax referendum question on the April 1 ballot. In opposition to Bates' presentation, that was largely in support of the referendum's role in advancing public safety programs and infrastructure, public comments at Monday's town hall came in sharply against the measure over the cost to residents – including some pushback from within the county government. Kane County Treasurer Chris Lauzen asked Bates a series of questions about the sales tax increase's expected collection, how much the county receives in general fund revenue and other finance questions, criticizing the county's spending and board members' not furnishing some figures about the budget at Monday's meeting. Cheryl Dennin, a resident of the county, asked why the county's annual budget had increased significantly between 2020 and 2024. According to county records, the 2020 budget's general fund expenditures increased from nearly $88 million to just over $92 million from 2019 to 2020. In 2023, that number reached just over $123 million, and went down to around $122 million in 2024. Bates said that lower operating costs for the county during the COVID-19 pandemic were an 'anomaly' due to the influx of federal pandemic funds, and said that federal money the county no longer has was used to pay for some staff salaries during that time, though Dennin suggested that salaries alone were not enough to explain the increase in spending over the past few years. 'In order to retain the best of the best, we need to provide a good incentive to them,' District 6 Kane County Board member Sonia Garcia said on Monday about the need for salary increases to remain competitive with neighboring counties. Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog also noted that infrastructure repairs were also increasing expenses – replacing air conditioners at the Kane County Judicial Center and elevators at the courthouse, for example. Brian Anderson, a resident of Sugar Grove, also criticized the county's hiring of a lobbyist, which board members said was hired to help the county save money in the long run. After some back-and-forth, Bates ultimately called the meeting. This town hall was the fourth hosted by the county about the referendum. They will be holding three more in-person meetings for residents to ask questions and offer feedback on the referendum: at the St. Charles Public Library at 5:30 p.m. on March 6, at the Geneva Library at 5:30 p.m. on March 10 and at the Sugar Grove Public Library at 5 p.m. on March 25.
Chicago Tribune
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Letters to the Editor: Vote yes on tax referendum to bolster Kane public safety; sheriff's wrong about why jail population's growing
Vote yes on tax referendum to bolster Kane public safety Over half a million people call Kane County home. We live here because we know that Kane is a safe, healthy and prosperous place to reside. We want to have a sense of safety and security in our daily lives. Public safety is a top priority, making life better for us and our families right here where we live, work, and play. Public safety in Kane County includes our sheriff, the courts and the offices of the state's attorney, coroner, circuit clerk, 911 and emergency management. It takes a lot of hard-working people to keep us and our children safe. Because of this, 71% of our expenditures from our general fund are for public safety. Kane County has been on a belt-tightening budget for many years. Since 2013, the county has sought almost no property tax levy increases, leaving the current levy far behind the cost-of-living increases. Some dips in general fund spending around 2020 were due to money provided for COVID relief, which covered a good portion of our general fund expenses, giving a false appearance of big jumps in spending over the last four years. But don't be fooled, Kane is lean and mean when it comes to saving the taxpayers money. Kane County has a referendum on the April 1 election ballot asking you, the voter, to approve a 0.75% sales tax for public safety. This means you would pay an additional 75 cents on a $100 purchase of tangible personal property bought at a retail store. This tax would not apply to daily necessities like food and prescription medicine. It would not apply to big ticket items like cars or trucks. This is not a property tax increase because we know our homeowners are already paying their fair share. Another benefit to this sales tax is both residents and nonresidents who shop, visit or work in Kane County are contributing to funding public safety. Kane needs to maintain public safety funding to ensure effective operation of our public safety offices. We need our specialty courts to continue providing mental health services and prevention initiatives. We need to protect our children from abuse and exploitation, including child pornography. My family and friends will be voting 'Yes' on this important referendum. If you would like more information about the sales tax referendum, please visit our website at or call me at 630-605-9244. Mavis Bates, Aurora Kane County Board Member, District 4 Sheriff's wrong about why jail population's growing In an article published in The Courier-News last week, Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain claimed that the Pretrial Fairness Act is responsible for Kane County's rising jail population and more arrest warrants being issued. Hain's claims are misleading and ignore the key factors truly driving the increase: prosecutorial and judicial choice. The law was designed to eliminate wealth-based detention, ensuring that people are incarcerated pretrial only based on safety and risk of flight, not on how much money is in their bank account. If Kane County's jail population is rising, it's because prosecutors are aggressively seeking detention and judges are granting these requests at higher rates — not because of the Pretrial Fairness Act itself. As Loyola University Chicago's Center for Criminal Justice Research has found, the law has reduced unnecessary pretrial detention and lowered failure to appear rates across Illinois. Sheriff Hain fails to account for the broader systemic issues contributing to rearrest. If he's concerned with a 'revolving door' in the criminal legal system, the solution is not more incarceration, but in investing in programs that have been proven to address the root causes of crime and stabilize vulnerable people. Increased funding for mental health programs, substance use treatment, housing and job training would be far more effective at making communities safer. Blaming the Pretrial Fairness Act because more people are in Kane County jail is overly simplistic and just wrong. It ignores the fact that in many other counties, the number of people in jail has gone down. It also distracts from the systemic issues that have kept certain communities in bondage for generations. Rather than reverting to the old unjust pretrial system that did so much damage in our communities, policymakers should focus on evidence-based solutions that prevent crime and support our residents who deeply need our help. David Cannon, Aurora Medicaid cut will be devastating for society's most vulnerable In Washington, the new U.S. House budget framework directs the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut at least $880 billion in spending. Details have not been released, but these reductions will result in deep cuts to Medicaid funding. This will have devastating consequences for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities — individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Among those who will be hurt is my adult son David. Because of a pre-birth brain injury, he is illiterate, cannot understand significant choices and needs 24/7 supervision. David lives in a Medicaid-funded group home and receives Medicaid-funded day training, both in Elgin. The federal government pays 51% of his service costs, while Illinois pays 49%. Any level of cuts in federal Medicaid funding would strip away access to vital services people like David need to live full lives in the community. And it's not just David. In Illinois thousands of adults with disabilities are waiting for Medicaid services. And that's right now, before any cuts! 'The care of human life and happiness,' Thomas Jefferson said, 'is the first and only legitimate object of good government.' The goodness of a society is judged by how it cares for its most vulnerable people. That's why budgets are moral documents that either ensure justice for all or treat individuals with disrespect. You don't have to be a genius to know that it's just plain wrong to shred safety net programs in order to provide massive tax cuts for billionaires and wealthy corporations. Please tell your senators and representative to reject harmful cuts to Medicaid. Legislators will be in their home offices this week. Please call, send an email or pay a personal visit. David is not just a number. He is a real person whose well-being is at stake. Please help protect people like him from reduced access to critical supports, longer waitlists and higher rates of institutionalization. James B. Gould, Carpentersville
