Source: warehouse.illinoiscomptroller.com/
This table breaks down three different county expenses
By William J. Taylor
Special to the Fox Valley Labor News
Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013
Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka has created a website to make local government finances transparent. Each year the Comptroller’s Office is responsible for collecting financial reports from counties, municipalities and special taxing districts from across the state. The site: http://warehouse.illinoiscomptroller.com is a treasure trove of government finance.
Using information provided by the website, the accompany graph below shows three counties in our reading area to see how our county governments are doing by showing sources of their revenue, where expenditures are made and how much debt each county has accrued.
As can be seen from the below graph, Will County appears to have their 2012 budget under control with a 1.9 percent deficit. Counties cannot print money like the federal government. They must stay financially solvent and spend in line with what they take in the form of revenues.
They can, and often do, borrow money for capital projects and for covering shortfalls. They can borrow funds in the form of general obligation bonds and/or revenue bonds. A general obligation bond is a loan that pledges at the local government level to levy a property tax to meet debt service requirements and you will find more about the various criteria in this bond once you decide to take it. The revenue bond is a type of municipal bond that is repaid only from a specified revenue generating entity (like a sewage treatment plant). You can also view the page for more information.
The interest rate the government must pay is lower than if a loan from a bank would be. This is due to the bond holder’s preferential tax treatment (no tax paid to the IRS on the interest received). Again, you will notice the total indebtedness in Will County is lower than its sister local counties. The amount each individual in the county owes is less than $300. The amount is half of Kane County.
In a recent issue of the Fox Valley Labor News the headline “On Strike for Fairness!” wrote that about 1,000 AFSCME workers walking off at municipal locations across Will County. When viewing the financials of the sister counties, it would seem that the efficiency with which the county has been run has been a result of their worker productivity. This is something that should be rewarded for a job well done.