County faces $759,000 budget gap; board leaders list five options including personnel cuts
The Committee of the Whole discusses FY2027 budget scenarios Tuesday; options range from spending reserves to trimming the highway levy.
URBANA - Champaign County's draft fiscal 2027 budget shows a net deficit of $759,000, and the County Board's Committee of the Whole will discuss ways to close it Tuesday, according to a memo in the committee's agenda packet.
The Oct. 9 memo from Finance Chair Elly Hanauer-Friedman, Vice-Chair John Farney and Board Chair Jennifer Locke says the General Fund is nearly $1.1 million short, offset partly by a $337,000 surplus in the Public Safety Sales Tax Fund. It says the structural deficit "will be impossible to overcome with one-year temporary fixes."
The memo lists five options, which can be combined: pass the budget as written and draw down fund balance; cut General Fund personnel costs about 2.5%, likely costing county jobs; budget vacant positions at zero; shift more of the roughly $3.7 million County Highway levy to the General Fund; or reduce or eliminate $250,000 for Advocates for Aging Care.
The item is listed for discussion only. The committee meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, at the Bennett Administrative Center, 102 E. Main St., Urbana.
Source: Champaign County Committee of the Whole agenda and packet, Oct. 13, 2026.