The Civic Federation supports the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s tentative budget of $1.2 billion for its responsible pension practices and transparent long-term planning. The District is prudently basing its pension…
In 2011, as part of its FY2012 budgeting process, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Retirement Board proposed legislative initiatives for pension funding reform, with the support of the MWRD Board of Commissioners.…
The Civic Federation supports the $425.6 million Chicago Park District budget for continuing the District’s multi-year effort to reduce its structural deficit. The proposal includes a broad-based property tax increase after eight years of…
UPDATE: On January 7, 2014, Governor Pat Quinn signed Senate Bill 1523 into law. The provisions of Public Act 98-0622 will go into effect starting January 1,…
The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) proposed FY2014 operating budget of nearly $1.4 billion. After two years of difficult but necessary steps to stabilize its operations, the CTA has produced a balanced…
On October 25, 2013, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the CTA’s bond rating to A1 from Aa3 and lowered its…
The Civic Federation supports the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s FY2014 proposed $178.8 million budget that holds the property tax levy flat and maintains substantial reserve funds. However, the Federation warns that these…
As part of its ongoing analysis of State and local government budgets, the Civic Federation also reviews proposed capital budgets along with any planning documents provided in support of infrastructure investments. Although many…
Four large local government pension funds in the Chicago area reduced their expected investment rates of return for fiscal year 2012. While intended to make the funds’ actuarial assumptions more realistic, these decisions will also have…
Over the next few weeks, many Chicago-area local governments will be releasing their proposed budgets for fiscal year 2014. In preparation for the upcoming budget releases, this blog will recap the Civic Federation’s significant…
