Illinois has by far the greatest number of local governments in the nation at 6,963, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 Census of Governments. The vast number of local governments in Illinois is often cited as a driving factor for Illinois’ high property tax rate, one of the highest in the nation, as many of the local governments are primarily funded by property taxes. A large share of…
Illinois Public Act 100-0401, signed into law on August 25, 2017, will increase the value of the Senior Citizens and General Homestead Exemptions in Cook County starting in Tax Year 2017 (payment year 2018). It also increases the income limitation for the Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption (“Senior Freeze”) for all counties in Illinois and provides for a minimum exemption in…
For nearly two months, the fate of Illinois’ budget for the current fiscal year was in doubt because of Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto of a school funding bill. With compromise education funding legislation enacted on August 31, attention can now turn to the FY2018 budget itself and specifically on whether it is balanced. An operating budget is balanced if expenditures match projected revenues. On…
After several iterations and much disagreement, the State of Illinois now has a new statewide school funding formula. The Illinois General Assembly approved the new formula as Senate Bill 1947, House Floor Amendment 5 on August 29, with the Illinois House passing the bill Monday, August 28 and the Senate concurring the next day. The Governor signed the bill into law as Public Act 100-0465 on…
Seven weeks after the General Assembly enacted Illinois’ first budget in three years by overriding the Governor’s veto, the backlog of bills owed by the State still stood at $14.5 billion.[1] As this blog discussed in July, the General Assembly’s budget did not attempt to address the entire backlog in a single year. Rather, the Budget Implementation (BIMP) Act authorized a package of measures…
After two years with no complete budget except for public school funding, Illinois now faces the prospect of beginning the 2017-18 school year with a budget for everything except schools. On August 1 Governor Rauner issued an amendatory veto of the school funding bill, SB1, passed by the General Assembly on May 31. Because the appropriations bill enacted in July over the Governor’s veto required…
Higher education was one of the areas hit hardest by the State of Illinois’ two-year budget impasse. This blog post examines how higher education fares under the budget enacted earlier this month by the General Assembly’s override of Governor Bruce Rauner’s vetoes. The new budget has appropriations for fiscal year 2018, which began on July 1, and additional appropriations for the previous fiscal…
The State of Illinois ended its two-year budget impasse on July 6, 2017, enacting a $36.1 billion spending plan with about $5 billion in tax increases. To break the logjam, the General Assembly narrowly overrode Governor Bruce Rauner’s…
The State of Illinois has renegotiated the termination thresholds on four of its five interest rate swaps to help avoid termination fees if the State’s credit rating is downgraded further. After the regular Illinois legislative session closed on May 31, 2017 with no budget being passed by both chambers of the General Assembly, two ratings agencies moved swiftly to downgrade the State. On…
The Illinois General Assembly ended its regular session on May 31, 2017 without passing a budget, heightening concerns that the State might move into a third year without a complete financial plan. Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service immediately lowered Illinois’ credit rating by one notch to just above junk status. S&P cited “the severe deterioration of Illinois’ fiscal…
