Annually the Civic Federation completes an analysis of the proposed budget of the City Colleges of Chicago. The Federation’s latest analysis of the City Colleges budget can be found here. This blog post expands on the Civic Federation’s analysis of City Colleges of Chicago by taking a look at the revenues and expenditures of all the public community colleges in Illinois, as well as a comparison…
Since Illinois passed its budget for the current fiscal year, many questions have been raised about the $445 million in savings expected from enacted pension changes. What is the basis for the savings estimate and how accurate is it likely to be? The assumed reductions in State pension contributions are the result of three provisions in the FY2019 budget legislation. The most important is a…
Following the enactment of the State of Illinois FY2019 budget on June 4, the Civic Federation blog has analyzed the potential impact on the General Funds and on local governments. This blog post will discuss the provisions for capital spending and the State’s long-term debt. FY2019 Capital Budget For the most part, the appropriations bill passed by the General Assembly includes all capital…
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner presented his FY2019 State budget proposal in February for the State fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2018. As discussed in an earlier blog post, the proposal included measures that would have affected local governments including municipalities, counties and transit agencies. The State of Illinois FY2019 enacted budget was passed by the Illinois General Assembly on…
After three years of political gridlock and missed deadlines, the Illinois General Assembly passed a budget for the coming fiscal year on the last day of its regular spring session. Governor Bruce Rauner promptly signed the budget amid bipartisan celebration. Although the $38.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2019 is roughly balanced on paper, concerns persist about whether the revenue and…
When will Illinois have a budget for Fiscal Year 2019? The issue is of intense concern because of the State’s recent history: full budgets for FY2016 and FY2017 were never enacted, while the General Assembly enacted a budget for FY2018 over Governor Rauner’s veto six days into the fiscal year. Another long-term budget standoff between the legislature and Governor would undoubtedly be disastrous…
Click here to read the full report. The Civic Federation’s Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability is not able to support Governor Bruce Rauner’s recommended FY2019 budget because it is precariously balanced and its modest surplus relies on aggressive assumptions. Additionally, the proposal does little to address Illinois’ massive backlog of bills. While the Civic Federation is encouraged…
The Civic Federation has long supported the development of a consensus revenue forecast for the State of Illinois. Public finance experts recommend that the executive and legislative branches reach agreement on a revenue forecast prior to the publication of the Governor’s annual budget to help ensure the review of critical assumptions, remove the forecast from ongoing dispute and keep the budget…
New monthly reports by the Illinois Comptroller’s Office provide the first detailed public information about interest penalties owed on the State’s mountain of overdue bills. As of the end of February, the State owed an estimated $983 million in late-payment interest, an increase of $96 million since the report was first issued two months ago. What do these numbers mean? Answering that question…
In a recent post, this blog analyzed the potential impact on State of Illinois revenues from replacing the current flat income tax rate with a graduated income tax. This post extends the analysis by looking at the effect of combining a graduated tax rate with the Civic Federation’s longstanding proposal to tax retirement income. As explained here, Illinois, like most states, bases its individual…
