Will County Board Republicans plan to schedule a special meeting to deal with a $2.8 million deficit in the 2026 budget.

Republicans want to draw from a $94.8 million reserve fund to balance next year’s budget.

A meeting had been planned for Friday but had to be canceled because of a state law that prohibits special meetings called on legal holidays.

County offices are closed on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

“We are working to reschedule,” board Republican Leader Jim Richardson, R-Mokena, said Tuesday.

The county board on Monday scheduled the special meeting for Friday. The meeting was canceled Tuesday morning.

“Late yesterday, we got a call from the state’s attorney’s office telling us we can’t have it (Friday) because it’s a holiday,” Richardson said.

The agenda for the meeting, which had been called for by eight Republican board members, included a resolution to use cash reserves to cover the deficit.

That’s what Republicans want to do, Richardson confirmed.

“We have an excess in reserve funds,” he said. “Based on the information we have, there is an excess of $20 million in reserves.”

The county as of last week had $94.8 million in reserves, which amounts to about 33% of the budget. The county’s goal is to have enough reserves to cover 25% of the budget.

The board last week approved a budget but reduced the property tax levy proposed by Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant to pay for it.

The reduced levy was supported by board Republicans along with one Democrat. A few Republicans at the meeting said they supported using cash reserves to balance the budget.

Bertino-Tarrant announced on Monday that she approved the budget, which must be enacted by Dec. 1.

She has not yet approved the property tax levy, which does not need to be finalized until Dec. 30.

“It is our sincere hope that the county board works together to address the $2.8 million gap between approved expenditures and revenue,” Mike Mahoney, chief of staff for the executive’s office, said in a Monday memo announcing that Bertino-Tarrant had approved the budget passed by the county board.