SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Sangamon County’s budget for the fiscal year starting in a few weeks is expected to be lower than last year.

County Administrator Brian McFadden told the County Board Tuesday night while several departments will get more money, overall, the $206 million spending plan is five percent down, and for good reason.

“That reflects the expenditure of bond proceeds and other capital funds, where reserves were built up over a period time, specifically to be spend on one-time items, primarily capital projects,” said McFadden, referring to the fact that the Fiscal Year 2026 budget was more than 35 percent higher than the previous year, so that the county could work on infrastructure projects.

Read the county’s budget here (PDF).

McFadden says otherwise, the spending plan for Fiscal Year 2027, which starts December 1, is doing something not a lot of governmental entities can say.

“This, I believe, will be the fifth year that the county’s property tax rate will go down,” said McFadden. “That’s pretty unprecedented. We haven’t seen that here at the county level in quite some time. I don’t know if any other taxing body in the county has reduced its rate five years in a row.”

The county is only ten percent of the average property tax bill, said McFadden. It is possible, though, that some new construction and increased property values could give your property tax bill a hike. But, McFadden says that wouldn’t be much of your overall bill.

Another way the county may get more property tax money is a Tax Increment Financing district in Springfield expiring next year.

“The Northend TIF is expiring in FY 27,” said McFadden. “We will be able to recapture property tax revenue that will no longer go into the TIF that will now come back to the taxing bodies, primarily the schools.”

The county’s annual property tax levy request will be taken up and voted on in December.