The Civic Federation supports the City of Chicago’s proposed $7.0 billion budget as a reasonable short-term plan that closes approximately two-thirds of a $338.7 million budget gap with structural changes that will continue to reduce the City’s ongoing deficit. To help balance the FY2014 budget, the City proposed an increase in the City’s cigarette tax rate, a reduction in the partial exemption…
This report uses nine indicators of financial condition to measure the relative financial performance of Chicago and 12 other major U.S. cities from FY2007 to FY2011. In addition to Chicago, the other cities analyzed were Baltimore, Boston, Columbus, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City (MO), Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Seattle. Of the cities analyzed, only Boston and…
The Motorola Solutions Foundation and the Civic Federation are pleased to announce the 2013 Motorola Solutions Foundation Excellence in Public Service Award honoree, Rosemarie S. Andolino, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation. The Excellence in Public Service Award recognizes a non-elected government official who has had an extraordinary impact on the quality of state and local…
As part of its ongoing analysis of State and local government budgets, the Civic Federation also reviews proposed capital budgets along with any planning documents provided in support of infrastructure investments. Although many governments approve new and reappropriated capital spending on an annual basis, few public entities in Illinois have based these expenditures on comprehensive capital…
Four large local government pension funds in the Chicago area reduced their expected investment rates of return for fiscal year 2012. While intended to make the funds’ actuarial assumptions more realistic, these decisions will also have the effect of increasing the funds’ liabilities and reducing their funded ratios. The State of Illinois’ five retirement funds also recently reduced their…
Over the next few weeks, many Chicago-area local governments will be releasing their proposed budgets for fiscal year 2014. In preparation for the upcoming budget releases, this blog will recap the Civic Federation’s significant observations from our analyses of local governments’ proposed FY2013 budgets. The governments studied by the Civic Federation include: the City Colleges of Chicago and…
Since July 2013 each of the six local governments monitored by the Civic Federation with General Obligation bond debt has experienced downgrades to their bond ratings. These governments are the City of Chicago, Cook County, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, the Chicago Park District and Chicago Public Schools. In the past three months…
The long-term lease of assets by the City of Chicago is one of the most significant financial undertakings by the City in recent years. These groundbreaking transactions have received national attention and been examined by other governments interested in new models of public-private partnerships. Recognizing the importance of these actions, the Civic Federation continues to examine these complex…
Managed competition is a form of alternative service delivery or public-private partnership (P3) that requires in-house service units of a government to compete with external providers under a controlled or managed process. It involves comparing the costs and benefits of contracting out public services versus the costs and benefits of those same services being provided by public employees. This…
Managed competition is a form of alternative service delivery that requires in-house service units of a government to compete with external providers under a controlled or managed process. The purpose of this issue brief is to describe managed competition, provide a short history of its use and results, identify managed competition best practices and review the forms of managed competition being…
