The Kane County Treasurer’s Office has distributed more than $8.7 million in interest income to nearly 300 local taxing bodies across Kane County between 2021 and 2025, with annual distributions growing from $2,312 in 2021 to a peak of $3.49 million in 2024, an increase of more than 1,500 times over four years.
The Kane County Treasurer’s Office collects taxes on behalf of approximately 300 local taxing bodies and distributes interest income proportionally based on each entity’s collections during the time the tax receipts are managed by the County Treasurer. Recipients include school districts, townships, fire protection districts, park districts, libraries, villages, and special service areas throughout the county. The largest school districts received hundreds of thousands of dollars; smaller drainage districts and special service areas received more modest but meaningful shares.
“The core responsibility of this office is to ensure that every dollar of public money held in trust is managed with discipline and care,” said treasurer Chris Lauzen. “Active investment management is part of that obligation. When the interest rate environment created an opportunity, this office was positioned to deliver the full benefit to the local governments and residents we serve.”
The growth in distributions reflects both the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases beginning in 2022 and the Treasurer’s Office’s ongoing investment discipline. In 2021, total distributions countywide amounted to $2,312. By 2022, as rates began climbing, distributions reached $290,956. In 2023 they surpassed $2.1 million, and in 2024 reached $3.49 million, all without any cost to taxpayers.
The interest distributions are in addition to the tens of millions the County itself earns annually on its own pooled funds, but they represent direct, no-cost revenue for local governments that rely on every dollar to fund services for Kane County residents. For school districts, fire departments, park districts, and libraries, this is real money that reduces pressure on levies and budgets without asking residents for more.
A full year-by-year breakdown of interest distributions by taxing body is available on the Kane County Treasurer’s Office transparency page at https://treasurer.kanecountyil.gov/Pages/Transparency.aspx.
—Kane County Treasurer’s Office