Members of the Lake County Forest Preserves Board unanimously voted to approve a $68.67 million budget for 2023 on Tuesday.
The budget is set to increase by just under 8%, from the 2022 budget of $63,617,824.
According to a presentation by Forest Preserves finance director Steve Neaman, county homeowners with a house worth approximately $250,000 will pay about $125.22 in property taxes to the Forest Preserves.
The 2022 levy from property taxes has risen about 1.4%, from $48,930,791 in 2021, to $49,602,200 to fund next year’s budget.
The Forest Preserves are set to collect approximately 1.94% of residents’ property taxes, a slight decrease from roughly 2% last year.
“We are glad and elated that we kept the budget as tight as we could have,” Forest Preserves President Angelo Kyle said. “We have done consideration of all the other things that are going on, and we want to continue the surge of participation people have had, especially the last two years (during the pandemic).”
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For comparison, taxes paid to the Lake County government account for about 6.59% of the estimated residential property tax levy for 2023, while school districts make up more than 52%, according to Forest Preserve figures.
Revenue from Lake County property taxes will bring in about 72%, of the funding for the budget, while about $19.07 million is expected from other revenue streams.
Operating expenses of $37,169,909 encompass about 54% of the budget, while the remainder consists of $22,044,740 in debt service payments and $9,459,368 in capital spending.
The Forest Preserves has seen a roughly 24% rate of employee turnover since March of 2020, according to Neaman, as 45 full-time or permanent, part-time employees have retired or left.
“As you can imagine, a lot of these union positions where we had people retiring at a higher level of the wage scale and now being replaced by people at the lower level of the wage scale,” Neaman said. “We do budget for some turnover every year, but that was significantly higher than what we had experienced in the past.”
Members of the Forest Preserve Board, who also make up the Lake County Board, approved about $2.83 million in new program form requests, including the hiring of seven new full-time employees, who will earn approximately $648,310. About $615,000 is allotted for equipment, while about $108,000 is scheduled out for technology improvements.
Kyle said two donations of $500,000 for Lake County’s Preservation Foundation, which funds projects in the county’s forest preserves in addition to moneys collected from taxpayers and other revenue sources.
Neaman said changes at the state level are also prompting an expected increase in revenue from replacement taxes from the state, estimated at $3 million for 2023. Partly because of the increased turnover, Neaman said, the county’s general corporate fund has grown.
“So we are proposing not to increase the taxes and actually decrease the levies and in those funds use the surplus dollars in the funding balances,” Neaman said.
Kyle said the budget is “not far away from last year’s budget,” and the Forest Preserves will be able to maintain the same services it has been offering.
Advocacy agenda
Before the Forest Preserves Board meeting, the Lake County Board approved its 2023 legislative advocacy agenda, which it will deploy to lobby state and federal lawmakers on legislation that county leaders support.
The main point of disagreement on the legislative agenda is the County Board’s support for extensive gun control reforms, including a state and federal ban on the sale and possession of assault weapons.
Republicans Kevin Hunter, Catherine Sbarra, Linda Pedersen and Mike Danforth voted against the agenda, which passed with 16 ‘yes’ votes.
“While I like many aspects of our legislative agenda, I cannot vote for a document or agenda that supports the attack on citizens’ Second Amendment rights by banning the mere possession of certain firearms,” Hunter said. “Should the United States Constitution change, I’ll support that change, but I feel as a county elected official we are way past our heads on this topic.”
Republican Ann Maine, who represents District 21, said she does not support all of what is in the advocacy agenda, but voted in favor of it.
She and Julie Simpson, a Democrat who represents District 18, both indicated they do not support Lake County’s advocacy position supporting the removal of the state Superintendent of Public Works Licensure Mandate.
Maine said there was a “spirited discussion” at the Public Works, Planning and Transportation Committee meeting earlier in the month surrounding the issue.
“There are good things in here,” Maine said. “Member Frank mentioned some of the environmental things. This, to me, I look at the legislative packet as it’s kind of like a budget. There are things I don’t like in here, but there are things I think are good.”
The board also approved a new, 10-year cable internet service franchise agreement with Comcast after complaints from residents of the Hunt Club Farms in Warren Township about an inability to get service prompted the Lake County Board’s Financial and Administrative Committee to consider negotiation options that could help the subdivision.
Member Carissa Casbon, who represents District 7 where the subdivision is located, pushed in September to hold up negotiations to get a fair deal for Hunt Club Farms.
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“The committee did provide direction to county administration to pursue federal and state funding and engage with programs that are out there to help neighborhoods like the one Member Casbon talked about,” Financial and Administrative Committee Chair Paul Frank said.
Casbon gave credit to the residents who brought their issues to her attention and said she was also “grateful to the staff and to the committee” for their willingness to look for solutions by other means.
After some discussion, the board also voted to push its November meeting back from Nov. 8, which is Election Day, to Nov. 15.