Official Seal of DeKalb County Government
DeKalb County, Illinois

FY 2003 Budget Narrative

Adopted November 20, 2002
1. The departmental requests are accepted as presented in the FY 2003 Budget Workbook and distributed to the County Board, with the highlights and exceptions as noted in the following paragraphs and on the attached schedules.
2. The Equalized Assessed Value (EAV) for the County is expected to increase by 6.6% overall, to $1,400,000,000. This includes about $34,000,000 in new construction. The average homeowner in the County will see an increase in assessed value of 3.6%. This would take the market value of a $150,000 home to $155,400. Using those changes in market value, the property taxes for that property would increase from $433.58 in 2002 to $440.26 in 2003. That is an increase of $6.68 or 1.5%.

 
3. The tax levies approved for the twelve different levied funds are outlined on the attached Tax Levy schedule. Generally, levy increases range from 3.5% to 3.75%. A significant deviation from that is for the General Fund where the increase will help offset the large increase in health insurance costs. It should be noted that this allocation of tax levy dollars, along with the limitation of the tax cap law, does bring several funds below the maximum rate that would otherwise be available to them.

 
4. The increases outlined above, fully comply with the "Tax Cap" (officially called the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, or informally called, P-TELL) approved by the voters in April, 1999. It was first effective for DeKalb County with the 2000 Tax Year which was Fiscal Year 2001. The limiting factors for the law in FY2003 is a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) rate of 1.6%, plus new construction, currently estimated at 2.6%, for a total of 4.2%. No referendums were approved to increase the limiting factor for this year. This budget reflects a goal to maximize the levy within this limiting factor which can be seen under the "Adopted Legal Notice Publication" column on the attached tax levy summary.
 
5. While the Health Department has only been in their new facility for just over three years, consideration must continue with how to finance the replacement of major components of the building in the future. Heating and air conditioning, roofs, carpet, etc. are just some of the types of things that will need attention as depreciation occurs over time. This budget continues with and expands upon what was begun in 2002 to address this issue with a Renewal & Replacement Fund for the Non-Nursing Home part of the Health Facility. The annual sum to be set aside is increased from $50,000 to $100,000. Funding for this need is provided by reducing the annual tax abatement in the PBC Bond Fund by a like amount.

 
6. Two types of fee increases are approved for the Health Department. A late license renewal fee for Restaurant Permits is increased from $15 to 50% of the cost of the permit. Similarly, late dog vaccination/registration fees are increased from $5 to $10.

 
7. The Sheriff has identified a new revenue source for the County which could generate $25,000 per year. Public Act 89-676 allows for a $10 fee per criminal conviction to be used to reimburse costs paid by the County for medical services provided to jail inmates. The County Board is asked to approve this fee effective for January 1, 2003.

 
8. A substantial new revenue stream began in FY2002. A new firm to the area, located in the City of Sycamore, which sells jet fuel to a major airline, generated a substantial amount of sales tax revenue for the County. In that first year only just over fifty percent ($320,000) of the anticipated $620,000 annual revenue was used towards covering the County’s operational costs. The balance of the funds were used to supplement employee insurance premiums with the hope that medical claims experience would improve. Unfortunately, that has not been the case and consequently, for FY 2003, the entire amount of this "new" revenue is placed into the County’s General Fund Operating Budget.

 
9. A significant loss in revenue for 2003 from 2002 is in the area of interest earned on investments. This is the case in almost every fund in the County and is reflective of two things: lower interest rates paid on investments and lower fund balances to invest. For the General Fund alone, the loss in revenue will be almost $200,000.

 
10.  The pay plans in effect for non-union employees are amended due to limited funding expected for FY 2003 and the substantial expected increases in Medical Insurance costs. Raises will not be split between merit and the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for the new fiscal year. Rather, this group of employees will receive an across-the-board 3.0% wage adjustment (effective with the pay period beginning December 1, 2002). The salary ranges, however, will only increase 1.6%, reflective of the tax cap COLA adjustment. The contracts for the MAP (Sheriff’s Police) and Teamsters (Court Services) are under negotiation for the 2003 fiscal year. The Teamsters Union (Highway Employees) was decertified as of the end of their contract on April 15, 2002.

 
11.  The Health Insurance Program for employees is still hindered by significant losses since 1998. At the end of FY 2001, the audit disclosed a negative fund balance of almost $600,000. This budget makes significant changes to the Health Insurance Plan to put it back on solid financial ground. To do so, means passing costs on to our employees as well as re-arranging the County’s spending priorities to address this issue. While we currently anticipate that premium increases will be substantial, efforts are continuing daily to have alternative solutions. As final premium amounts are unknown as the budget is adopted, "worst case" amounts have been factored into the overall County Budget.

 
A special assessment is being considered for each Departmental Fund to retire the deficit that exists at November 30, 2002, currently projected to be about $600,000. This amount would be pro-rated to Departments based on eligible covered employees as of November 30, 2002. Departments will have up to five years to pay this special assessment. Again, as the entire insurance plan is finalized during late fall, addressing the deficit will be part of the proposed solution.

 
The Insurance Buyout Program for employees is continued with the buyout amount remaining at $1,200. Because of these significant plan changes, an "Open Enrollment" is authorized for January 1, 2003 for the Health Insurance Program. A small amount of money ($5,000) is set aside to begin implementation of a federal law called "HIPAA" (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ) which puts strict rules on the employer to separate employee’s health and employment issues. As of January 1, 2003, term Life Insurance coverage is $37,000, up from $36,000, with no change anticipated in the rate.

 
12. The Facility Manager has requested two personnel changes. The request to upgrade one Maintenance II position (AL10B) to a Maintenance III position (AL10A), at a projected cost of $2,500 is approved. Funding does not permit the request to add one additional position to the maintenance staff which would cost $39,000. We do, however, add $3,000 to the part-time staff line-item request in the hopes that temporary help can be found to assist with peaks in the workload.
 
13. The State’s Attorney has requested the addition of one Level I Attorney. This is approved with a five year sunset clause or until State funding is made available for a DUI attorney. Monies for this position are temporarily available from County Farm sales tax monies that are "earmarked" for Juvenile Detention costs once our Intergovernmental Agreement expires with Kane County, projected at about four to five years from now.

 
14. The Sheriff has requested three additional staff positions, two in the Corrections Division ($48,000, each) and one Secretary B ($33,000). Similarly to the special funding identified for the State’s Attorney’s request, one Correction Officer is approved, also with a five year sunset clause on funding. It is hoped that during this time period a solution will be found to the space issue at the jail and financial solutions to that problem will include adequate funding levels for required staffing levels. The second Correction Officer and the Secretary B are not approved. However, an experiment is offered to the Sheriff, through the Special Projects Fund, to address the transcript backlog problem. Monies are set aside to bring transcripts up-to-date using temporary help with a pay plan that parallels productivity. If the experiment is successful, it may serve as a model for this and other secretarial needs.

 
15. The Information Management Office (IMO) has requested to make changes in positions authorized to reflect changing work needs and available staff. The plan is approved as outlined with annual savings projected at $5,000 and first-year savings of almost $50,000. In summary, the plan adjusts the salary of the Lead Network Technician for additional responsibilities, eliminates the position of Systems Support Coordinator, creates a GIS Manager position at the AS11 level, and creates advancement opportunities between the GIS Technician and GIS Analyst based on successfully completing training courses. This is consistent with the philosophy adopted since this department was created to make changes as the development of technology and GIS grows in the County. The GIS Fee and GIS Technician will be moved from a special fund to the General Fund. Because of turnover earlier in the year and the necessity of making changes as opportunities present themselves, any pay changes resulting from this staffing change is retroactive to the date of this recommendation, September 4, 2002.

 
16. An item of increasing concern is how to service 24 hour departments (or even departments with expanded work days) when the IMO Department staffing levels only allows coverage between 8:00am and 5:00pm, five days a week. This budget begins to look at expanding emergency technology services beyond the basic work day and work week. The solution proposed is probably just the first step in the total solution that one day will need to be implemented. The solution is spelled out in detail in the IMO budget presented in the Budget WorkBook, but in general terms, it provides for compensation for after-hour work and it stipulates a $75 fee charged to the department requesting the service call.

 
17. The Judiciary has requested some changes in staffing, including the expansion of hours available for Spanish interpretation. The request for a Law Clerk ($7,700; 28 bi-weekly hours) and an Administrative Assistant ($5,000; 10.5 bi-weekly hours) is granted as a trade-off for eliminating the half-time Secretary B position ($10,800). Unfortunately, tight funding makes it not possible to grant the request to increase monies for expanded Interpreter hours.

 
18. The Planning Director has requested a job title change within his department from Building and Development Officer to Chief Building Inspector with no change in salary. The authorized hours for the Building Inspector are also changed from 58 hours bi-weekly up to 48 hours.

 
19. The Public Defender’s request to change the half-time contractual attorney position to that of a full-time staff attorney is approved at an incremental cost of $22,000. However, the request to upgrade the salary of the Administrative Secretary ($4,500) is denied.

 
20.  There are several miscellaneous salary increases for various appointed Boards and employees: the part-time ESDA employee from $2,400 to $2,600; the allocation for part-time Coroners from an aggregate of $26,000 to $28,000; Conflict Attorneys from $16,000 to $16,500; ESDA Director from $27,500 to $28,500; County Historian from $5,200 to $6,500; and the Board of Review is increased from $7,000 to $7,250

 
21.  The Court Services budget reflects a change made during FY 2002. In order to significantly curtail very expensive institutional placements for individual children, the Court decided to hire two Intensive Juvenile Probation Officers. The cost for this increased staff is off-set by the reduction in anticipated placement costs for 2003.

 
22. The Probation Fee Fund is being utilized for some additional purposes than in past years. In late 2002 it was used to provide vehicles for the two Intensive Probation Officers described above, in 2003 it will provide funding ($75,000) for "Probation Rooms" as part of the third floor courthouse remodeling, and funds for camp expenses as another alternative to juvenile detention.

 
23. The Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) agency requested office space and $25,000 in annual funding. While space (plus utilities other than telephones) was allocated for a minimum of a two year period in the basement of the Public Safety Building, CASA eventually turned down that offer as they did not feel the space would adequately meet their needs. The monetary request of $25,000 is denied given the tight funding levels for the County in 2003.

 
24.

This budget changes a previous policy regarding General Liability Insurance and excess Worker’s Compensation Insurance. Currently the County buys ($75,000) General Liability Insurance with a $1,000,000 deductible. No claim has been filed against this policy. This budget returns to the policy of self-insurance that existed just a few years ago and eliminates the purchase of this insurance. Likewise, the County’s Worker’s Compensation policy, at a cost of about $30,000, has a deductible of $300,000 and no claims have been submitted towards this policy. This budget also adopts self-insurance for this exposure and declines to purchase this insurance.

 
25. A new fund, called an Opportunity Fund, is created with funding coming from sales tax revenue on the County Farm property. With sufficient funds now on-hand in the Debt Service fund to retire the 1995 bond issues, monies no longer need to be designated for that purpose. It is envisioned that the Opportunity Fund will allow the County to take advantage of opportunities as they arise which will further enhance the quality of life in the County or increase future revenue sources. Examples in the past would be a loan for the extension of Greenwood Acres Drive, development of the County Farm property, property acquisitions, or a loan for the new Forest Preserve in northern DeKalb County.

 
26. As part of the FY 2003 Budget, the possibility of offering an Early Retirement Program through IMRF to employees was considered. A cost study showed that if all qualified people took advantage of the program, the liability incurred by the County would be about $3.4 million. While savings would be generated with lower salaries from new employees, short-term finances do not allow us to pursue this option in the upcoming fiscal year.

 
27. Retirement costs (FICA and IMRF) and Health Insurance costs generated by departments are being charged to those departments in FY2003. This is part of the financial reporting change required by GASB 34. Only the General Fund and the (non-Home Health portion of the) Health Department will be provided revenues by the Retirement Fund tax levy to offset those charges. Additionally, "chargebacks" which have been in place for many years will be eliminated for everyone except the Enterprise Fund, which is the Rehab & Nursing Center. To ease the transition of this cost for the Highway Department (estimated at about $160,000) an equal contribution will be made from County Farm sales tax revenues to assist with the retirement of the debt owed on the new Transportation Building. In addition to the accounting benefits, these changes assist with balancing deficits in the General Fund.

 
28. Funding is continued and maintained at FY 2002 levels for several entities: Economic Development Corporation at $35,000; Ag Extension at $22,000; and the Soil & Water Conservation District at $15,000. The Joiner History Room is increased $500 to $6,500.

 
29. Various reductions are made in departmental budgets in the capital line-items. Departments may choose where to make the actual capital reductions, but the amounts in summary are: Planning ($600), Sheriff ($19,000), Central Plant ($13,700), Public Defender ($1,500), Court Services ($1,400), and Assessments ($1,200). In addition, the Sheriff’s Capital request for $100,000 for computer servers is moved to the Special Projects fund. The Sheriff’s request of $13,000 for facility updating is transferred to the PBC Renewal & Replacement Fund.

 
30.  Regional Planning. In FY 2002 the County proposed and adopted funding for a potential Regional Planning Commission. That has moved from concept to reality and a formal organization is now in place. This budget continues with the concept approved last year and completes the second of two years of $100,000 funding. The appropriation is contained in the Special Projects budget. This budget also formalizes action by the Planning & Regulations Committee to pay the Planning Director a $300 monthly stipend for extra work with the Regional Planning Commission.

 
31.  This budget continues with the Five Year Renewal & Replacement Program for the Sycamore Campus in cooperation with the Public Building Commission with projects totaling $888,000. Funding is provided by the County at $150,000 plus interest earned by the PBC. Major items for Fiscal Year 2003 includes remodeling in the Courthouse ($450,000) to accommodate a fifth courtroom and miscellaneous offices. As part of this project, a contribution of $100,000 from the Court Security Fund is also anticipated. Tuckpointing ($150,000) at the Courthouse, changes to the controls of HVAC Systems, and some additional parking on recently acquired property is anticipated.

 
32.  Funding ($400,000) is also continued for the Five Year Special Projects Program. Major items for Fiscal Year 2003 include funding for the Regional Planning Commission discussed above, completion of the records storage system configuration, Sheriff’s computer system upgrade, and continuing work for ADA compliance. The total appropriation for this fund is set at $637,000.

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