GENEVA IL – A Republican candidate for Kane County auditor is running in the March 15th GOP primary to eliminate the same office he’s seeking.
“I am not a career politician; I am a career businessman. And when I look at the Auditor’s office, I see duplicity and unnecessary spending,” said Craig Lee, Republican candidate for Kane County Auditor. “As a fiscally conservative Republican, I want to shrink the size of our government, not make it bigger – and that’s why I want to eliminate the Auditor’s office. With our State on the verge of a financial Armageddon, our elected officials need to explore ways to cut costs and increase savings wherever necessary."
The Auditor’s office is not a constitutional office – and in fact, the County Auditor does not and cannot audit county books. The primary responsibility of the Auditor is to approve the County’s bills prior to being sent to the Kane County Treasurer for payment each month. Lee says he believes the job can be done through the Treasurer’s Office.
“In the last four years, the Auditor’s annual budget has increased nearly 50% – from $217,000 to $322,000. Government offices are only getting bigger – and so are their budgets,” Lee said. “Career politicians will tell you that we need to keep these offices despite redundancy – but career businessman will tell you that we need to eliminate them – and I will eliminate it.”
Lee also highlighted that out of the $322,000 annual Auditor’s office budget, $270,000 of that goes to payroll and benefits.
“As a successful career businessman, red flags immediately went up when I noticed that 80% of the Auditor’s budget goes to payroll,” said Lee. “$270,000 is a lot of money to count county cars in parking lots.”
Lee went on to say that if he is fortunate enough to be elected Auditor, that he “will work hard with our other finance offices to create a transition plan that maximizes savings and eliminates duplicity to better serve the taxpayers of Kane County.”
The current Kane County auditor is Terry Hunt. The Daily Herald said Hunt has done a good job in his first term, and endorsed Hunt's re-election March 15th.
