Will County Board Approves 2025 Budget with Focus on Infrastructure and Services

The Will County Board approved its fiscal year 2025 budget Thursday with bipartisan support, though some members raised concerns about continued tax increases amid economic pressures on residents.

The budget includes several major capital investments, including complete replacement of beds and furniture at Sunny Hill Nursing Home, some of which was 17 years old. The board also allocated $400,000 for Sheriff’s vehicle replacement to ensure reliable emergency response capabilities.

“That’s going to ensure that our police force has equipment that they can make sure that they can get to and from residents’ requests for assistance,” explained Finance Committee Chair Jim Richmond. The budget also included $155,000 for the County’s tort immunity fund and approximately $3.5 million for veterans’ services.

Board Member Steve Balich cast a dissenting vote, arguing for spending cuts instead of maintaining current tax levels. “People at home have to cut their budgets and the amount of money that they’re getting is less,” Balich said. “Their revenues are down and they have to find ways to pay their bills and the bills keep going up and one of the bills that goes up is County.”

Richmond acknowledged an earlier attempt to reduce the tax levy to 1.75% from 2.0%, which would have reduced taxpayer obligations by $1.9 million, did not succeed. However, he defended the final budget as making strategic investments in critical services and infrastructure.

“I think otherwise we did a very good job as a committee and working together and trying to come up with something that the residents should be very happy with,” Richmond said. “It didn’t reduce their property taxes but you know we’ll see.”

The budget passed with 18 affirmative votes, setting spending levels for the fiscal year beginning December 1, 2024 and ending November 30, 2025.