Despite the struggling economy, DuPage County’s budget projections appear to be on target for the first seven months of the fiscal year, finance officials announced at Tuesday’s County Board meeting.

From Dec. 1 through the end of June, the county brought in $3.2 million more than expected and spent $2.5 million less than expected in its corporate fund, which pays for most day-to-day operations.

The slumping housing market has resulted in the county recorder’s office collecting about $2 million less than planned from real estate transfers and filing fees. The decline has been offset by fees from other offices and above-expected income tax payments.

“We tend to put out a conservative revenue budget,” Finance Director Fred Backfield said. “It’s always better to be happily surprised than unhappily surprised.”

The sales tax revenue the county collected through the end of June has remained at roughly the same level as last year, but sales tax revenue typically increases about 5 percent annually, Backfield said. The stagnation this year can be attributed to consumers holding back spending because of the current economic climate, he said.

The $24.2 million collected through June does not include the quarter-cent sales tax increase that kicked in April 1. The county began receiving its share of the new tax in July.

Looking forward to next year’s budget, Backfield said the important factors to consider will be how long the current recessionary pressures and housing slump will last and how the state’s ongoing budget woes will affect county level.

Board member Patrick O’Shea, R-2nd District, of Lombard said there were “no great surprises” in the information presented to the board.

O’Shea, chairman of the board’s Finance Committee, said it will be crucial for the board to carefully consider how to spend the estimated $40 million the county will receive from the new sales tax next year.

A priority will be giving raises to employees of the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s office, O’Shea said. But he wants to make sure the increases are not so high that they put the county in a bad financial position in the future.

“We want to bring them up to acceptable level, because they haven’t had a raise in the last two or three years,” O’Shea said. “We have to make sure that whatever we give them we can afford to give them in the future.”

County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom is scheduled to introduce his plan for the 2009 budget Sept. 15.