Kankakee City budget committee reviews conservative FY2027 proposal, flags steep drop in ambulance revenue

Comptroller Paula Rogers presented the budget committee with an initial Fiscal Year 2027 spending plan that relies on conservative revenue estimates and offsets several projected declines, including a nearly $1.0 million fall in ambulance-related fee revenue.

Rogers told the committee she had provided three years of history and the un-audited FY26 figures as context for the FY27 proposal and said she deliberately trimmed assumptions. "I'd rather be conservative on those numbers and be happily pleased at the end of the year than the other way around," Rogers said, explaining lower projections for sales and local-use taxes and a $40,000 drop in the road-and-bridge tax line reported by the county.

The presentation walked members through revenue drivers and expenditure pressures. Rogers said corporate replacement tax receipts have fallen from prior historical levels after several companies left the state; un-audited FY26 corporate-replacement receipts were about $1.0 million and the FY27 budget includes $1.2 million, below earlier historical actuals. She flagged that ambulance-fee revenue is expected to fall substantially due to billing and payer changes and that the city is pursuing cost-report adjustments to capture additional insurance-related costs tied to fire personnel.

"One of the places that we're working is to pull out the portion of insurance costs that are specifically tied to the fire department personnel," a staff member, Brian, said when asked how reimbursements might change; Rogers said those allocations aim to raise future allowable billing rates.

Rogers also noted one-time items in FY26 that boosted revenues, including an unexpected $300,000 grant, and identified a remaining ARPA balance of just over $1.0 million across roughly a dozen open project lines. The administration recommended delaying final adoption to allow storm-repair claims and other adjustments to be incorporated: the committee set a July first reading, two public hearings, and a July 20 target for final passage.

Mayor Jones and the city manager praised Rogers and her team for detailed work on a difficult budget, noting modest overall line changes (revenues projected up roughly 1.3% and expenditures up roughly 1.5%) and a contingency of about $28,000 to achieve a balanced budget posture. The mayor cautioned that construction incentives tied to a local private project (the Ricky Rockets development) will affect sales-tax receipts in the next fiscal year because the city agreed to a 50% sales-tax rebate to the developer during the construction period.

On specific program lines, Rogers told the committee the violence-prevention program currently staffs two employees (three parts of last year) and that training and conference funding reflects prior-year attendance at events such as the Cities United conference. She said city building-permit revenues are elevated by ongoing post-storm insurance-funded repairs but that the administration remained conservative in its estimates.

There were two formal, routine votes recorded at the meeting: approval of the April and May budget-committee minutes (motion by Alderman Osinga, second by Alderman Jones; approved by voice vote) and a motion to adjourn (moved by Alderman Marzac, second by Alderwoman Johnson; approved by voice vote). No final budget adoption occurred; the committee set the public-review timeline for July and directed staff to follow up on several revenue questions, including the county's road-and-bridge report and the status of a transfer from TIF 8.

The committee will revisit the proposal during July's readings and public hearings before the council considers final passage on July 20.