Will County Corporate Revenues Surpass Expectations, Igniting Debate Over Delinquent Tax Sales

Will County Finance Committee Meeting | March 3, 2026

Article Summary: A routine review of the county’s year-end corporate fund revealed that revenues exceeded budgeted expectations by millions, largely driven by delinquent property tax sales. The financial windfall, however, sparked a tense philosophical debate among committee members regarding the county’s responsibility to track why residents are losing their homes.

Will County Corporate Fund Key Points:

• Preliminary fiscal year 2025 corporate fund revenues reached $280.7 million, operating at 102.47% of the amended budget.

• Delinquent tax sales generated roughly $4.2 million, surpassing the budgeted projection of $3.3 million.

• Total corporate fund expenses sat at $260.8 million, or 95.11% of the budget, keeping the county comfortably under its spending limits.

• The county’s cash balance stood at $105.5 million at the end of November 2025, representing 36.87% of the upcoming 2026 adopted budget.

The Will County Board Finance Committee on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, reviewed a highly favorable preliminary FY25 year-end budget report, though the source of the extra revenue prompted friction among elected officials.

Chief Financial Officer ReShawn Howard reported that the county brought in $280,740,820 in corporate revenues, outperforming the $273.9 million amended budget. Property taxes led the revenue categories, accounting for 38% of the total, followed by intergovernmental revenues at 35% and charges for services at 13%.

Howard specifically highlighted that the overperformance was partially driven by the annual delinquent tax sale, which brought in approximately $4.2 million against a budgeted $3.3 million.

That figure drew immediate scrutiny from Vice Chair Julie Berkowicz, who requested a granular breakdown of the sales to determine if residents were losing their properties due to mortgage defaults or an inability to pay the property taxes themselves.

“I feel as an elected official, what’s causing people to lose their property? I would like to know as an elected official, as a board member,” Berkowicz said. “Are a lot of people losing their homes because they’re not able to pay their property tax bill? I think we should understand that factor. We should be cognizant of that.”

Howard noted that the Treasurer’s Office does not possess that specific level of detail regarding the personal financial defaults that lead to the tax sales. Committee members pointed out that while the Sheriff’s Office publishes foreclosure notices, extracting the exact reasons for default across the board is difficult.

“Some information is public and some is not,” another committee member noted during the back-and-forth. “So why people fail to make payments is not always something that we can ascertain publicly. We know when they don’t make their mortgage payments when there’s a filing… but they’re personal.”

Berkowicz pushed back, stating she was not seeking personal information, but rather factual, numerical data on the underlying causes.

Member Daniel J. Butler weighed in, suggesting that the root causes of the defaults are inherently linked, which could make the data unreliable.

“I think that you already know what you can get the information for that she asked,” Butler said. “And I think that the question was people didn’t understand, because if a person can’t pay their mortgage, they’re not going to pay their taxes. So, you might—some of the information you get might be a little distorted.”

Chair Sherry Newquist concluded the discussion by requesting that Howard consult with the Treasurer’s Office to provide whatever non-personal data is legally available to the board, or to officially report back if the data simply cannot be compiled.

Despite the debate over the tax sales, the overall financial health of the county remains strong. Total expenditures were held to $260.8 million, with personnel salaries and benefits making up 75% of the costs. The county closes out the fiscal period with a robust cash balance of over $105.5 million.