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.
This is fantastic.
FINALLY – a fiscally conservative candidate !
I only wish I could vote for Mr Lee, instead I will be forwarding this article to my Lane County reltives and friends.
Thank you Mr Lee, I hope I have the opportunity to vote for you some day.
“The Auditor’s office is not a constitutional office – and in fact, the County Auditor does not and cannot audit county books.” The State Statute governing the County Auditor (55 ILCS 5/3-1005) states that one of the many duties of the County Auditor is to “maintain a continuous internal audit of the operations and financial records of the officers, agents or divisions of the county. The county auditor shall have access to all records, documents, and resources necessary for the discharge of this responsibility.”
While the Illinois Constitution does allow for the elimination of elected offices other than Sheriff, County Clerk and Treasurer (Article VII, Section 4), this can only be accomplished by county-wide referendum. No individual has the unilateral authority to eliminate an elected office; only the voters can choose to relinquish their right to elect their government officers.
Mr. Hunt has worked tirelessly in his first term to ensure that Kane County’s financial details are easily accessible to all residents, and I would encourage anyone who has not visited the Auditor’s website to do so.
Deborah Woodruff
Kankakee County Auditor
Hunt has done an excellent job bringing transparency to Kane County via the new Kane County OpenGov site. The site is excellent, with budgets and checkbooks and so much more, easily sorted. That’s one of the reasons Terry Hunt has been endorsed by the Daily Herald–he’s done what he promised.
It would be nice to say that the Treasurer’s office can handle the Auditor’s duties. That may be true–I don’t know. But I do know that before Hunt, Kane did not have anywhere near the level of transparency and accessibility to information as it now has.
I CAN vote for Craig Lee, and I WILL.
The current auditor is a nice guy, but he is tied by strings to the current County Board Chair, ex-senator Chris Lauzen. The strings between those two do not bode well for Mr. Hunt’s duty to be an independent voice on budget matters.
We have continually seen Mr. Lauzen attack Coroner Rob Russell on budget matters. Russell inherited a Coroner’s office that was a mess: deteriorating facilities, uncompleted business, unfulfilled state mandates, and an artificially low budget caused by all this neglect. The need to correct these problems indicated a need for a budget increase, for which Lauzen – and Hunt – attacked Russell.
A new, truly independent Auditor is needed in Kane County. Craig Lee is the man for the job.
Ms. Woodruff, thank you for your recitation of Illinois State Law regarding the office of county auditor. However, you do not live, nor VOTE, nor pay taxes in Kane County, so please refrain from endorsing any candidate in what is strictly a Kane County election.
So Kane County’s financials are now easily accessible to all residents?
Well done Mr Hunt, your “tireless efforts” are appreciated.
And, your work here is done.
Best of luck Mr Lee.