Committee recommends deficit-free budget
By ELENA GRIMM egrimm@daily-chronicle.com
SYCAMORE – The Finance Committee of the DeKalb County Board on Wednesday night was close to having no budget recommendation to give to the full county board.
It would have been the first time in at least 25 years, when Deputy County Administrator Gary Hanson began with the county, if the eight-member committee had not worked out a compromise in the end.
The 2010 budget proposal – which will be considered by the full board in two weeks – is balanced by transferring $1.64 million from the building fund into the general fund. The compromise is that the amount will be restricted, for building purposes only.
"In a way, it's shuffling the chairs," said Mark Todd, R-Waterman, who had originally voted against the budget proposal. "To me, it's a reasonable compromise."
Todd made the motion to make the transfer and restrict the funds within the general fund. The committee unanimously agreed with him, mainly to avoid the possibility of having a wide-open budget discussion by the 24-member county board if no recommendation were made.
When the budget was first proposed in September, it carried a $1.7 million deficit and called for using reserve funds to smooth the deficit.
An amendment to that eliminated the $1.7 million deficit through two measures: The first was transferring everything, or $1.64 million, from the building fund into the general fund.
This amount had been saved to eventually build a new jail. But clearing the fund now makes sense, Hanson said, because the county board recently authorized the jail and courthouse to be expanded through selling bonds rather than saving a little at a time.
Paul Stoddard, D-DeKalb, called for leaving the money in the building fund to offset the amount that will be borrowed.
"What we're basically doing is increasing the amount we're going to bond in order to cover the money we already have on hand," he said.
In addition to the $1.64 million transfer, health insurance costs are expected to rise only 8 percent in 2010 instead of the original 10-percent projections, Hanson explained, which might save about $200,000.
The budget almost reached a dead end when a motion to recommend a balanced budget – without restricting the $1.64 million transfer for building – received a 4-4 vote.
Twice.
Members were split on whether to accept a $1.7 million deficit in 2010 or to have a balanced budget by transferring money.
Ken Andersen, R-Sycamore, was opposed to a budget that swelled over the previous year. Next year's budget is almost 2 percent higher than this year's.
"In today's climate, I just have a hard time doing that," he said. "I had hoped we could come up with a budget that didn't have any increases."
Hanson said that reserves are built over the years to be able to "weather the storm," and that even in the economic downturn, the budget maintains services and projects no rise in property taxes for the average homeowner.
"You shouldn't be embarrassed to embrace this budget when both those things happen," Hanson said.
As part of the recommendation made by the Finance Committee, a number of expenses in the original budget are proposed to be cut, such as solar panels, parking lot repairs and electrostatic painting of jail cell bars.
No one spoke during a public hearing on the budget.
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