On August 10, 2022, the City of Chicago released its annual Budget Forecast for FY2023. The Forecast provides financial estimates for the City’s current fiscal year ending December 31, 2022 and a forecast for the next three fiscal years. This was the fourth forecast produced by the Lightfoot administration pursuant to Executive Order No. 2019-3, which requires the financial forecast to be…
The criminal justice system in Illinois is comprised of a multitude of different agencies and systems. This blog post will focus on the departments that make up the key criminal justice system agencies within Chicago and the State of Illinois, including agencies from three levels of government: municipal (City of Chicago), county (Cook County) and state (the State of Illinois). Each agency plays…
This blog post provides a high-level overview of personnel within the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The information presented includes both budgeted data based on the City of Chicago’s annual FY2022 budget and active, assigned sworn officer data based on public safety data dashboards available on the Office of Inspector General website. Budgeted CPD Personnel The Chicago Police Department has…
Bring Chicago Home, a grassroots coalition dedicated to securing an earmarked revenue stream to combat homelessness, has launched a campaign to put a referendum on the City of Chicago ballot asking voters to approve an increase in the Chicago real estate transfer tax (RETT) for high-end properties selling for over $1 million. Properties valued at less than $1 million would continue to be taxed at…
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has selected Bally’s Corporation to develop a mega casino in the River West neighborhood at the site of the Chicago Tribune’s current printing plant at Chicago and Halsted Avenues. In addition to the casino, Bally’s proposes the development of a theater, an outdoor music venue, a hotel, an extension of the Riverwalk, a park, restaurants and other amenities. The goal…
The Civic Federation recently released its annual estimate of the full value of property in Cook County in tax year 2019. While the Federation’s estimate of the full value has grown each year since the trough in 2012, the 2019 total County value of $634.9 billion is still short of the previous peak of $666.2 billion. However, breaking out the values by assessment triad, the City of Chicago’s 2019…
Click here to read this issue brief online. SUMMARY This annual report lists and describes selected consumer taxes within the City of Chicago. For ease of use by non-specialists, the taxes in this report are grouped under the following categories: sales taxes, tobacco and nicotine-related taxes, beverage-related taxes, utility-related taxes, accommodations-related taxes, transportation-related…
The Illinois Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) limits the growth of a taxing district’s property tax levy to 5.0% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.[1] Taxing bodies annually can choose to increase the amount of property tax dollars they seek (the “levy”) up to the PTELL limit, to a lesser amount, or they can forego an increase.[2] The PTELL law applies to all non-…
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law on March 11, 2021 and provides for $350 billion in funding for eligible state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments. The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF), a section of ARPA, provide significant revenue support to state and local governments, and in contrast to prior pandemic relief such as the…
On December 15, 2021, the Chicago City Council approved an ordinance (SO2021-3243) to regulate sports wagering in the City. The new legislation lifts a previous City ban on sports betting and allows for a 2% tax on gross sports betting revenues. It also allows for the opening of sports betting locations (also known as “sportsbooks”) in and around five of the City’s sports stadiums, among other…
