A Commission created to analyze an annual five-year forecast of Cook County revenues held its first meeting in early July. The Cook County Board of Commissioners approved an ordinance establishing an Independent Revenue Forecasting Commission on October 17, 2018. The Commission is intended to help the Board of Commissioners make informed budgetary decisions by evaluating long-term revenue…
The Cook County Chief Judge’s Office recently released a report and accompanying data assessing the effectiveness of a 2017 reform of bond court practices. The report increases transparency and allows for additional public analysis of pretrial justice in Cook County. The analysis in turn raises concerns about racial disparities and additional questions about bond court outcomes. General Order 18…
The Illinois Department of Revenue recently announced that the final equalization factor for the Cook County 2018 property assessment year (taxes payable in 2019) is 2.9109. Each year the Illinois Department of Revenue calculates equalization factors for every county in order to achieve uniform property assessment throughout the State. The 2018 final equalization factor of 2.9109 is less than…
After several years of study and discussions, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) approved an intergovernmental agreement with Cook County for the MWRD to share services of the Cook County Office of the Independent Inspector General. The intergovernmental agreement allows for the Cook County Inspector General to serve as the Inspector General for the MWRD for a…
The Civic Federation supports Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s goals of a more accurate and transparent assessment system, as well as his goal of getting assessments right the first time, which will reduce the cost of appeals to taxpayers by reducing the number of appeals needed. Improved public confidence in property assessments would go a long way toward making the system as a whole more…
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 2007 and 2016, effective tax rates increased in all of the selected…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. AT A GLANCE This annual report compares estimated effective property tax rates in the six-county region of northeastern Illinois between 2007 and 2016, the last year for which data are available. Effective tax rates increased for all selected communities in the ten-year period…
2019 Civic Federation Legislative Priorities The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2019 include public employee pension reforms, consolidation of local government units in Illinois, enacting policies to rationalize the property tax system, creation of a Local Government Protection Authority, requiring the State of Illinois to…
Click here to read the full report. The Civic Federation supports Cook County’s proposed FY2019 budget of $5.9 billion because it is structurally balanced without raising new taxes and continues the practice of making supplemental pension payments. The Federation is encouraged by the County’s strong level of fund balance reserves and its commitment to performance-based budgeting and…
Consumers of liquid nicotine in the City of Chicago will now pay more for liquid nicotine following the passage of Ordinance 2018-7371. Liquid nicotine products are used in e-cigarettes, also referred to as vaping. On September 20, 2018 Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced Ordinance 2018-7371 to the City Council Finance Committee where it was passed by the Committee and within hours sent to and…
