In the Civic Federation’s “Recommendations for a Financially Sustainable City of Chicago” report issued last week, the Federation discussed the importance of a government making data about its operations available for public download. Municipalities often include data about budgets and tax increment financing on their websites, as well as information about traffic congestion, consumer…
The purpose of this report is to provide the City of Chicago’s Mayor and City Council with detailed recommendations on ways to address the City’s serious financial challenges and create a government that is more efficient, less costly and more accountable. On February 14, 2011, the Civic Federation released Financial Challenges for the New Mayor which identifies the most significant fiscal issues…
The purpose of this report is to provide the City of Chicago’s Mayor and City Council with detailed recommendations on ways to address the City’s serious financial challenges. Click here to read the complete report Click here to read the press release This report provides recommendations for creating a government that is more efficient, less costly and more accountable. It contains some…
Alternative service delivery refers to any process that shifts some or all of the functions, risks or responsibilities for delivering a service from the primary government to the private sector or another public entity. When the function is transferred to the private sector it is commonly referred to as privatization. Alternative service delivery can take many forms such as an asset sale or lease…
A critical fiscal process for state and local governments is the planning and funding of capital projects. The literature on best practices for capital budgeting is not as robust as for operating budgets and there is significant variety in the practices of governments. There are a number of factors that add complexity to capital planning, including the multi-year nature of capital projects, the…
As explained previously in this blog a key indicator the Civic Federation uses to assess the financial health of local governments is the level of unreserved general fund balance maintained. Such reserves are essential in order for the governments to be able to withstand the inevitable “rainy days” that result from revenue fluctuations and unexpected expenditures. Without a fund balance in place…
Among the many challenges facing City of Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel when he takes office May 16 is the precarious state of the City’s finances. The City has a large and increasing direct debt load that could be a major indicator of financial risk. Long-term debt consists of tax-supported debt issues such as general obligation bonds and notes as well as bond premium and issuance costs. Long-…
Mayor-Elect Rahm Emanuel and the newly elected Chicago City Council face a host of major financial challenges. One of the hardest problems to solve will be the pension crisis. As a result of recent state legislation, the City now faces two distinct pension problems: two of its four funds are still expected to run out of money by the year 2030 while the other two funds are scheduled to be rescued…
The three largest municipal governments analyzed by the Civic Federation are the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the City of Chicago and Cook County. All three began their FY2011 budget processes projecting large budget shortfalls: CPS projected a gap of $370 million, the City of Chicago projected a gap of $655 million and Cook County projected a gap of $487 million.[1] These budget…
The Civic Federation analyzes the budgets of nine Chicago area local governments. One important indicator that the Federation utilizes to assess the financial health of these municipalities is their fund balance level. In particular, we examine the balance within the general fund that does not have any external legal restriction, called the unrestricted fund balance. Fund balance differs from net…
