Bourbonnais Township, by its own records

Part 01 of 10

The money pile

Budgeted to lose $629,500. Came out $223,299 ahead.

Bourbonnais Township budgeted to LOSE $629,500 in the year ending March 31, 2025.

Instead it came out $223,299 ahead.

This series walks through Bourbonnais Township's own audit, budgets, ordinances and meeting video, with every number sourced.

Budget vs. reality (year ending March 31, 2025, township board side only; the Road District has its own budget)

• Budgeted to spend: $1,448,800
• Actually spent: $724,669, almost exactly half
• "Contingencies" budgeted: $241,000. Spent: $0
• Investment earnings expected: $14,200. Earned: $100,528

The year before showed the same pattern: the township's main fund was budgeted at $1,063,500 and spent $592,423.

The pile

On April 1, 2026 the township board's funds held $3,091,124. The separate Road District held $3,858,858. Together: $6.95 million, almost three years of both tax levies combined.

Above the state's limit, by our math

Illinois law (60 ILCS 1/85-65) says township funds "shall not exceed" 2.5 times the average of the previous three years of spending. By our math, three funds the township board controls were about $966,000 above that on April 1:

• Town Fund: $392,824 above
• General Assistance: $161,022 above
• IMRF pension fund: $412,074 above. The plan it pays into was 105.6% funded at the end of 2024.

The Road District's funds are UNDER its limit.

The statute has no penalty and its wording is garbled, so we're not calling this illegal. We're asking a question: a board that says it wants to cut your road taxes is holding roughly a million dollars above the state's ceiling in funds only it controls. Why?

This year's budget

$463,900, about 26% of the township's $1.76 million budget for 2026-27, sits in open-ended lines:

• $250,000 "Disaster/Community Development," up from $100,000 last year
• $213,900 in contingency, miscellaneous and donation lines, including $150,000 in Town Fund contingencies

The board has talked about the disaster line in public. At its Feb. 9 meeting it said it ended the township's rebate program as too costly and moved money into community development. On March 23, after the spring tornado, it voted to give $70,000 from last year's line to what it called "the county's relief and assistance fund," plus $30,000 for nonprofits the Supervisor would pick. What the $250,000 is for this year hasn't been spelled out.

Nothing we've seen shows any of it was misspent. It means the spending authority is already approved.

In fairness

• The township board lowered its own levy request each year since 2022, from $818,433 to $704,229.
• On a $300,000 home in the Village of Bourbonnais, the township board's levy is about $61 of an $8,214 tax bill. With the Road District it's about $206. Schools are about $5,242. The township is not why your bill is big.
• The Road District has been spending down its savings.

The question isn't whether they're broke. It's why the budget keeps authorizing money that doesn't get spent, and whether the December levy will give back what's above the state's ceiling.

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Part 03 of 10

It’s not just a heat program

What Illinois law says General Assistance must do, and what the township advertises.

Most people think of Bourbonnais Township's General Assistance as a winter heat grant. That's the only program its website describes. But Illinois law sets up something broader.

What state law says

• In counties like ours, townships "shall provide funds for and administer" General Assistance (305 ILCS 5/12-3). The township supervisor runs it (60 ILCS 1/70-50).
• Help with basic living needs "shall be given" to residents who meet the eligibility rules (305 ILCS 5/6-1). "Shall" makes it a duty. How much people get is set by each township's own standards (6-2).
• People on General Assistance must also get medical help. A township can limit that to acute care (6-1).
• Townships may also offer emergency help for people not already on General Assistance, once in any 12 months, paid straight to a landlord, utility or other vendor. It's meant "to alleviate life-threatening circumstances or to assist the individual in attaining self-sufficiency" (6-10).

What the township budgets

The 2026-27 budget sets aside $130,400 for aid:

• Emergency utility program $30,000
• Rent/shelter $24,000
• Hospital $24,000
• Doctor $8,000
• Utilities $8,000
• Dental $4,000
• Prescriptions $4,000
• Transient expenses $3,200
• Fuel $2,400
• Food and household needs $2,200
• Funerals and burial $1,200
• Miscellaneous and contingencies $19,400

We don't know which of those lines pays for the heat grant. In the last audited year, the budget for aid was $115,400 and $12,400 went out. The auditor described it as help "for heat and other assistance."

What the website says

One program: a heat grant, "first come, first serve basis until allocated emergency funds are exhausted." You pick up an application at the office, then call for an appointment; "Walk-ins will not be accepted for assistance meetings." On Sept. 30 the page still showed last season's dates (Nov. 3, 2025 to March 31, 2026).

It says nothing about help with rent, medical bills, prescriptions, food, burial or emergencies.

How other townships do it

We read the General Assistance pages of other Illinois townships on Sept. 30. Most describe an ongoing monthly grant. Many also describe emergency help with rent or utilities. Some post their dollar amounts:

• Rich Township (Cook): $475 a month, for household income of $600 a month or less
• Normal Township: up to $500 a month
• City of Champaign Township: up to $304 a month for a single adult
• Decatur Township: $200 a month, for people with zero income

None of the pages we read describes a heat grant as its main program.

Bourbonnais doesn't post its income limit or its grant amount. We've asked for both.

Who qualifies (the short version)

This is a last-resort program, and the rules are strict. Generally you must:

• have income below the township's own grant amount
• not qualify for the state's other aid programs, including state medical coverage
• register for work if you're able to work
• be 21 or older, married, or 18–20 and not living with a parent
• If you moved here recently, you can still apply. State law decides which township pays.

If you apply

• Ask for the decision in writing.
• If you're denied, cut off or given too little, you can appeal within 60 days, free. The appeal goes to the county's Public Aid Committee: the County Board chairman and four township supervisors. You can bring a lawyer (305 ILCS 5/11-8, 11-8.1).

How to ask

Bourbonnais Township General Assistance, 1350 Armour Road. (815) 932-6422. Mon–Thu 8–4, Fri 8–3.

You can ask about any kind of help, not just heat.

Heating bills this winter

The state's big heating-bill program, LIHEAP, is separate from the township. Shaw Local reported Sept. 29 that Kankakee County Community Services no longer runs LIHEAP here, and Will County's community action agency is handling it this year. KCCSI says it's in a dispute with the state. The state has designated the Will County Center for Community Concerns to serve Kankakee County residents. Call (815) 722-0722, email assistance@wcccc.net, or visit wcccc.net.

In fairness

• We found no state law that requires a township to advertise its program or post its rules online.
• A township can run a narrower version of General Assistance under state law. We've asked which version Bourbonnais runs.
• Eligibility is strict, so low spending can partly reflect few qualifying applicants. We don't know how many people applied, or how the $12,400 was split. We've asked.
• We have no evidence anyone was turned away.
• The board cut the General Assistance levy from $145,429 to $130,429 for tax year 2025.

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Part 05 of 10

$100,000 out the door

Thirteen days after the tornado, the board gave away its entire disaster line.

On March 10 an EF-3 tornado tore through Kankakee and Aroma Township, including Aroma Park. Thirteen days later, the Bourbonnais Township board voted to give away $100,000, its entire disaster budget line.

The Supervisor said he had first raised the idea with trustees by email and had talked with the county board chairman. At the March 23 meeting, the item ran about 16 and a half minutes on the video, from discussion to the last vote.

Where it went

• $70,000 to the county. Asking for the motion, the Supervisor called it "the county's relief and assistance fund." Trustee Matt Alexander made the motion.
• $30,000 for nonprofits, with the Supervisor to research recipients and "report back." On April 20 he told the board the donations went to the county, United Way, and two churches helping storm victims: Grace Baptist and a United Methodist church.

We haven't seen a check, a receipt, or the amount any single recipient got. The board never said which fund it meant. The county's main publicized tornado fund, the Emergency Response Fund, is run by United Way and the Community Foundation of the Kankakee River Valley. The county board's posted minutes don't mention a gift from Bourbonnais Township, but minutes rarely list individual gifts, so we've asked the county directly.

Why the rush

Supervisor Jeff Umphrey told the board:

• "financially as a township, we're in great shape," and giving the whole amount "wouldn't hurt us a bit"
• the disaster line hadn't been used "in several years"
• "We have to spend it before the end of the month or use it for the month."

The money wasn't going to disappear at midnight. Unspent, it would have stayed in the Town Fund. The township's own budget lists that fund's beginning balance on April 1 at $1,835,734. What would have lapsed was the permission to spend it from that line. The board could have budgeted it again for the new year, and this year's budget does exactly that at a bigger size.

"Giving some of the money back"

In February, presenting the proposed budget, the Supervisor said the township "eliminated the rebate program that was too costly." On March 23 he tied the donation to it: "we took that rebate thing away. We didn't do the rebate. So this is just another way of giving some of the money back to the community."

What the rebate paid, to whom, and how much, isn't in any record we have. How much of the $100,000 reached people who live in Bourbonnais Township isn't known either. We've asked for both.

What about our own?

According to Shaw Local, the county board chairman said extensive hail damage hit parts of Bradley and Bourbonnais. The vast majority of Bradley lies inside Bourbonnais Township.

At that same March 23 meeting, board members brainstormed ways to help "some of our residents" whose cars were totaled or undrivable:

• money for a rental
• bus tickets
• a discounted hotel deal
• General Assistance for people without full coverage

We reviewed the captions of every board meeting video posted from March through September (nine meetings, on the Highway Commissioner's channel). We found no vote, program, or follow-up on any of those ideas.

For the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2025 (the latest audit), the township's General Assistance fund spent $12,400 on home relief. It had budgeted $115,400. On that date the fund held $584,878.

State law also gives townships a tool made for this. After a governor's disaster proclamation, a township may use General Assistance money for 90 days to help storm-hit households, without the usual income rules (305 ILCS 5/6-9):

• food and temporary shelter, for households that have applied to FEMA or the SBA
• up to $1,500 per household to repair storm damage to the home: structural repairs, heating and electrical systems, bedding and refrigerators. It’s paid directly to the contractor or other vendor, never to the household, and the household must have filed an insurance claim

Any household with storm damage qualifies, whatever its income. It’s a loan, not a gift: households sign an agreement to pay it all back, from their insurance, FEMA or SBA money, or on a payment schedule if they’re turned down. It doesn’t cover cars. Pritzker’s proclamation, which covers Kankakee County’s March and April storms, was signed June 30, so that window ran through about Sept. 28.

We found nothing in the nine meeting videos we reviewed showing the township used it, or offered any other help to its own storm-hit residents.

The money was there. The General Assistance fund held $463,502 on April 1, 2026. At the $1,500 maximum, that’s enough to front repairs for about 309 households, and because the money is paid back, it would have returned to the fund. The $100,000 the board gave away would have covered about 66.

Instead, the board sent its money to outside groups. The two churches came up from the floor on March 23. Someone at the board table asked, “What’s the church on Walden Road?” A woman in the room said, “I’m just going to speak up real quick,” and described a Methodist church doing housing help and canned goods and Grace Baptist serving hot meals. Her name isn’t given on the video. The Supervisor said he would lean on others for suggestions “because I haven’t been out there,” adding, “I didn’t know the Methodist one up the road.” On April 20 he told the board the money went to the county, United Way, Grace Baptist and United Methodist Church.

In fairness: FEMA aid never came to the county, which made the food-and-shelter part harder to use, though the repair part didn’t depend on FEMA. Both churches were doing real storm relief, and some of that help may have reached township residents. We’ve asked whether any did.

This year's budget raises the disaster line from $100,000 to $250,000.

Meanwhile, the highway commissioner

Commissioner Jason Diaz sent Road District equipment, and at least one employee, to help with cleanup in Aroma Township. He says Aroma Township's highway commissioner asked because the small township didn't have the equipment. On March 23 the Supervisor praised that work, mentioning the water Diaz had delivered and the crews "helping remove debris."

The board never objected to the help on any video we reviewed. It did go through his bills:

• April 20. A board member asked, "Will we get reimbursed for this? $6,700?" about a rented skid steer. Diaz answered that it depended on the county, that "Townships help each other out," and that the rental was also used for other road work. The Supervisor asked that it be charged to a different road fund, and Diaz agreed. The township attorney recommended holding off on some Road District bills until the board knew the budget could cover them.
• May 18. A board member asked about a pizza lunch for cleanup crews on April 10: "A month after the tornado?" Diaz said about 20 workers from different local governments were still out there. The board approved the rental invoices 5–0, and later approved the night's bills 5–0.

On Sept. 21 a resident asked why the board was "questioning about pizza when he was trying to help out Aroma Park" when no one else's spending gets questioned. A board member answered that the other budgets have "been in line and haven't over extended themselves on anything." Someone at the board table added that the trustees "audit the bills. That's their job."

In fairness

• The tornado was a real disaster. The county, United Way and local churches did real relief work, and helping neighbors is what communities do. The Supervisor also floated asking the county to pass any reimbursement on to United Way or the Red Cross.
• Checking bills is part of a township board's job, and the bills discussed here were approved. This board and the Highway Commissioner have been at odds over road money for months.
• The law gives a township more than one route here:
• The Township Code lets a township spend directly or contract with other governments and nonprofits to provide services "to the residents of the township."
• Illinois' emergency-management law lets local governments take on obligations "to provide emergency assistance to victims" of a disaster, and in a disaster to skip some of the usual spending formalities.

Which authority the board relied on is one of our questions. We are not saying it broke the law.

What we asked the township

1. Where exactly did the $70,000 go, and who deposited the check?
2. How was the $30,000 split?
3. What legal authority did the board rely on for gifts to groups outside the township?
4. Did any help reach township residents with storm or hail damage?
5. What did the rebate program pay, and to whom, before it ended?
6. What's the plan for this year's $250,000?

We've filed public records requests with Kankakee County for its record of the $70,000 and with the township for the checks and receipts. We'll post what comes back.

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Part 07 of 10

One real race

Two elections, one contested race.

In the last two Bourbonnais Township elections, voters had a choice in exactly one race: Highway Commissioner.

In 2025 they picked Jason Diaz.

This November the township board has put his office, the Road District, on the ballot for abolition.

What was on your ballot (certified results, Kankakee County Clerk)

In both 2021 and 2025, every other township seat drew exactly one candidate: Supervisor, Clerk, Assessor and all four trustee seats. Highway Commissioner results:

• 2021: Steve Bisaillon 2,205, Jason Diaz 1,807
• 2025: Jason Diaz 2,184, Steve Bisaillon 1,984

That's a 598-vote swing. All five board members who voted to put the Road District on the ballot hold seats that were unopposed in 2025.

The party

In 2025, every township candidate except Diaz, including Bisaillon, ran under one label: UNITY.

• The committee behind it is the Bourbonnais Township Unity Party (ISBE #40317).
• Chair: Supervisor Jeff Umphrey. Treasurer: Trustee Frank Cianci.
• Its stated purpose: "To elect Bourbonnais Township Independents." The same wording appeared in its predecessor committee's paperwork, which dates to 1993.
• The only Independent in the 2025 township races was Jason Diaz.

Money raised: $0.00

The committee has filed six quarterly reports since January 2025, and all six report $0.00 raised. Total spent: $150.

• Its first registration listed $1,882.54 available.
• Nine days later an amended registration left that line blank.
• The only documented money in is a $262.54 transfer from the predecessor committee.

The same names, for years

In 2017, a single brief in an Electoral Board court case was filed on behalf of eight township officials and candidates, plus the Bourbonnais Township United Party (Unity's predecessor). The board's decision was upheld. Four of those eight still hold township office. We haven't obtained the complaint that started the case.

In fairness

• Running unopposed is legal and common in township races.
• We found no rule requiring a party committee to raise money, and nothing showing anyone was kept off the 2021 or 2025 ballot.
• We have no evidence the referendum and the 2025 election result are connected.

Township offices are on the ballot again in April 2029. If you want a choice, someone has to file.

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Part 09 of 10

No undo button

What a “yes” vote does, and what it doesn’t.

On Nov. 3 you'll vote on this: "Shall the Road District of the Township of Bourbonnais be abolished…?" Here's how that law works. The township's fact sheet doesn't cover it.

Only the board could put this on your ballot

The state law behind this question (605 ILCS 5/6-134) lets the township board put abolition on the ballot "by resolution." It gives voters no petition route. The board voted 5–0 to do it on Aug. 10.

Is there a way back?

If "yes" wins, the Road District is abolished "by operation of law." That section has no provision for reversing it or re-creating the Road District later, and we found none elsewhere in the sections we read.

When it happens

Abolition takes effect 90 days after the vote is certified, or when the current highway commissioner's term ends, whichever is later. That's May 2029. Commissioner Jason Diaz stays in office until then.

What moves to the township board that day

• All road taxing power
• The Road District's funds: about $3.86 million across its accounts as of April 1, 2026 (the 2029 amount will differ)
• Its equipment, property, debts and duties
• Running the roads. The board may hire the county, a village or a private company to do the work.

The five-member board makes those calls from then on. Its seats are next up at the regular township election in April 2029.

What a "yes" doesn't do

• It doesn't end the Permanent Road tax, about $1.29 million a year and 78% of the road levy. That tax was created by referendum and takes its own referendum to repeal. Abolition hands it to the board.
• The abolition section itself has no language locking road money to roads. Other laws may limit how some of it can be spent; we haven't found a clear answer.
• It doesn't guarantee a tax cut. The township's $500,000–$600,000 savings estimate has no written basis produced so far (see Part 8).

The villages have money in this too

State law (605 ILCS 5/6-507) gives half of the road-and-bridge tax levied on property inside a village's limits to villages that maintain their own streets, to be spent on roads or streets. That comes from the road-and-bridge tax only, not the Permanent Road tax. For tax year 2025:

• Village of Bourbonnais: $58,350
• Village of Bradley: $48,970
• City of Kankakee: $1,522

After abolition the township would make those payments, from the road-and-bridge levy. If the board cuts that tax, the villages' share shrinks with it.

In fairness

• Abolishing a road district is legal, and supporters say it can save money.
• Folding the Road District into the township removes a separately elected office and one layer of overhead. That's a real argument for "yes."
• If "no" wins, nothing in the section stops the board from asking again at a later election.
• We're not telling you how to vote. We want you to know what your vote does.

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