The City of Chicago recently released its Budget Forecast for FY2021, which provides financial estimates for the City’s current fiscal year that ends on December 31, 2020 and a forecast for the next fiscal year and following two years. This is the second forecast produced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration since she took office in May 2019. Under the previous mayoral administration, the…
Starting July 1, 2020, many Illinois cannabis consumers will see an increase in the taxes they pay on recreational cannabis as the Cannabis Retailers’ Occupation Tax that is allowed to be imposed by counties and municipalities goes into effect. This local option sales tax will be in addition to state excise, general sales and privilege taxes and existing local sales taxes on general merchandise…
In the wake of protests over the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police officers, police accountability and reform has risen to the forefront in government discussions, and residents in many cities have called for defunding the police. The defund-the-police movement has called into question the best use of budget resources and whether some issues often handled by…
This blog post is an update to the Civic Federation’s April 9, 2020 blog post: How COVID-19 is Impacting Chicago’s Criminal Justice System and How Public Safety Agencies are Responding. Cook County Jail The Cook County Jail population on May 15 was 4,061. Another 3,186 defendants were under community supervision on electronic monitoring. These numbers represent a 29% decrease in the number of…
The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a severe blow to Chicago’s hospitality industry. Conventions have been cancelled, dine-in restaurants have closed, airport traffic has plunged and sporting events have been cancelled. As of early April, the City had experienced the loss of over 20 conventions and 250,000 hotel bookings related to those events.[1] The coronavirus closures have had an abrupt and…
As discussed in a previous blog post, the unprecedented public health emergency brought on by coronavirus has led local governments in Illinois to enact emergency measures and loosen rules related to the Open Meetings Act. Local government bodies have been meeting remotely pursuant to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s Executive Order 2020-07 issued on March 16. In the absence of normal meetings and…
The spread of the COVID-19 virus and the measures put in place to reduce the transmission of the virus have forced states and localities across the country to quickly adjust to a new way of governing. Either through executive-branch action or legislative changes to statutes, states have altered their laws surrounding open meetings in an effort to allow state and local governments to continue to…
The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on all sectors, including the criminal justice system. How are the public safety agencies in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois responding to the public health emergency? Cook County Jail On March 9, the day Illinois Governor JB Pritzker declared a state of emergency, the Cook County Jail had about 5,700 people in jail (“behind the walls”)…
The Civic Federation is examining the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the State of Illinois and its local governments. The following are blog posts and other items covering various topics related to the pandemic. Final Cook County Coronavirus Relief Fund Allocations March 5, 2021 Cook County has accounted for all $429 million in Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) funding the…
Click here to read the issue brief. 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 taxes…
