In the November 2020 general election, Cook County voters will elect a new Circuit Court Clerk for the first time since 2000, with current Clerk Dorothy Brown opting not to run for reelection. Four Democratic candidates and one Republican candidate have filed to run for the office. The Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Cook County is a fairly obscure and arguably opaque County office,…
UPDATE: The Cook County Board passed ordinance 20-0658, imposing a 3% cannabis retailers’ occupation tax on recreational cannabis sales within the county. The new tax will go into effect July 1, 2020 and is in addition to state and local sales taxes and other cannabis taxes, as described below. The county projects it will receive $850,000 in revenue from the tax during the last six months of 2020…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Civic Federation supports the Cook County FY2020 Executive Budget Recommendation of $6.18 billion because it presents a reasonable budget plan that holds the line on increasing taxes or fees while continuing to make investments in communities and services. Thanks to structural…
The Civic Federation recently released its annual Effective Property Tax Rates report, which examines two- and ten-year trends in estimated effective tax rates for residential, commercial and industrial property in selected northeastern Illinois communities. The report highlights that in the ten-year period between tax years 2008 and 2017, the effective tax rates increased in all of the selected…
Since the beginning of FY2009, the Cook County Pension Fund has seen an increase in its liabilities not covered by assets, or the unfunded liability, of nearly $3.8 billion. The increase is attributable to a number of factors and has fluctuated over the years. The following table presents the contributing factors that have increased or decreased the fund’s unfunded liability since the beginning…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. MAJOR FINDINGS Effective property tax rates are a measure of property tax burden for homeowners and businesses. They translate the tax rates on property tax bills into rates that reflect the percentage of full market value that a property owed in taxes for a given year. This report, produced annually…
The Civic Federation recently released its annual estimate of the full value of property in Cook County. The 2017 estimated value of all Cook County real estate was $585.6 billion. The 2017 estimates represent the fifth year in a row in which real estate values in Cook County increased after six straight years of decline. The 2017 total value estimate is an increase of $26.1 billion, or 4.7%,…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. MAJOR FINDINGS This report provides an estimate of the full market value of property in Cook County between tax years 2008 and 2017 using data provided by the Cook County Assessor and the Illinois Department of Revenue. The full market value of real estate in Cook County was approximately $585.8…
Cook County’s public health system has sounded an alarm about the increasing cost of services for which it does not receive reimbursement, saying that Cook County Health will not be able to fulfill its mission of providing care to all—regardless of ability to pay—if the trend continues. Cook County Health expects to provide $544 million of uncompensated care in the current fiscal year, which…
A key Illinois Medicaid panel has recommended that the State move away from costly and often ineffective hospital detoxification services to treat opioid addiction. The Medicaid Advisory Committee on August 2 urged the State’s Medicaid agency to revise its reimbursement practices to discourage traditional hospital detox stays and provide financial incentives for evidence-based care such as…
