McHenry County officials still are looking for ways to cut expenses and increase revenue as the County Board gets ready to vote on next year’s budget and a proposed property tax levy increase.

The McHenry County Board is weighing whether to bump up its levy to where it was before voters approved a sales tax increase to fund the county’s Mental Health Board – which came with a promise to lower the property tax levy by a commensurate amount.

That so-called “lookback” option – the one board members appear to be leaning toward – comes as county leaders have worked to close a budget gap for next year that was projected last month to be about $3.7 million.

During a Tuesday County Board meeting, board member Eric Hendricks proposed sending the budget and levy back to the county’s finance committee.

County Board Chair Mike Buehler declined to take up Hendricks’ proposal, but Hendricks pressed the point. After some procedural back and forth, Hendricks’ effort failed.

County Administrator Peter Austin said Tuesday evening that county officials outlined in a three-page document ideas for cutting spending and increasing revenue.

According to the document, some of the revenue ideas include looking at fees that are charged by the health department, planning and development, and the sheriff’s office. Cost-cutting proposals also include ideas such as increased sales tax from businesses that haven’t correctly reported it and reducing the senior services levy.

The “lookback” option that county leaders have proposed would increase the levy to about $73.8 million, where it was in 2023. Austin said the current proposal includes a $1.7 million abatement – meaning taxpayers wouldn’t get charged for that amount – but the county is looking for ways to increase it.

County officials said in a news release Wednesday that the $288.8 million budget on review cuts 18 positions and “reflects many cost-saving efficiencies.”

The county’s share of residential tax bills in 2025 was about 6.5%, officials said.

“For the previous 10 fiscal years, the McHenry County Board has lowered its property tax levy despite growing inflation and unfunded state mandates – which saved taxpayers a total of $128.2 million in taxes it otherwise could have collected since the 2017 fiscal year," according to the release.

The county’s levy was about $79.4 million in fiscal 2017 and just under $65 million in fiscal 2025, according to county records.

But the board has taken some of the inflationary increase allowed in the past several years, and much of the decrease in the fiscal 2025 levy was thanks to the sales tax.

Members of the public who spoke about the levy Tuesday expressed opposition to the lookback and tax increases. A couple speakers suggested that the county commit to something similar to DOGE, or the federal Department of Government Efficiency, which saw wide-scale layoffs of federal workers and spending cuts after President Donald Trump’s second term began.

The McHenry County GOP executive committee also formally came out against the proposed increase in this year’s budget and levy. The Republican Party enjoys a 15-3 supermajority on the County Board.

A resolution that Republican Party officials sent to the Northwest Herald cited, among other things, county leaders’ pledge to cut out the share of the county property tax levy that funded the Mental Health Board if voters approved a sales tax for that board.

The county GOP also noted there are board members who promised when they campaigned for office that they would hold the line on property taxes.

Now, the party argues, some of the board members are going back on their word and negating what the voters wanted by going for the lookback. The resolution also calls out Austin and County Board finance committee chair Michael Skala, a Huntley Republican, noting those two “are leading the committee in favor of the levy increase.”

Some of the board members have echoed those ideas, with Hendricks saying last month that if the board went back to the pre-referendum levy, it “lied to the voters.”

The board is set to take a final vote on the budget and levy at its Nov. 18 meeting. The vote takes place ahead of the county’s new fiscal year that begins Dec. 1.