This blog post examines the City of Chicago’s long-term liabilities. It includes a review of trends in the City’s long-term governmental and business-type activities, liabilities, debt service trends and a discussion of its tax-supported long-term debt and recent credit rating changes.
New data from the Illinois Gaming Board show that casino revenue gross receipts have continued their recent trend of annual growth, thereby increasing tax allocations to the State of Illinois and local governments. These data also offer first-month estimates of the City of Chicago’s inaugural casino, the temporary location of which opened Sept. 9, 2023, at the former Medinah Temple building…
This blog post blog post examines Cook County’s long-term liabilities. It includes a review of trends in Cook County’s long-term governmental and business-type activities liabilities, debt service trends and a discussion of its tax-supported long-term debt and recent credit rating changes. This analysis was previously presented as part of the Civic Federation’s annual examination of the Cook…
In this blog post, the Civic Federation analyzes indicators of the fiscal health of the City of Chicago’s four pension funds based on the most recent FY2022 actuarial reports, dated December 31, 2022. The City of Chicago’s pension funds are severely underfunded due to a combination of statutory underfunding, benefit enhancements, investment losses, optimistic assumptions and other long-term…
This blog post examines the Chicago Public Schools’ contributions to the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund in the FY2023 budget and the funding status of the Pension Fund based on financial health indicators. Additional descriptive information about teachers’ pension benefits and history can be found in past budget analyses.[1] Members of the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund Certified CPS teachers…
On June 23, 2022, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle issued a preliminary budget forecast for fiscal year 2023. The fiscal year begins December 1, 2022 and ends November 30, 2023. The report provides end-of-year estimates for the current 2022 fiscal year and a forecast for the upcoming 2023 fiscal year in the County’s operating funds. The operating funds include the General Fund, which…
Short-term or current liabilities are financial obligations that must be satisfied within one year. These include short-term notes, accounts payable, amounts due to other funds, accrued payroll and other current liabilities. Rating agencies, financial analysts and the Civic Federation regularly track trends in short-term liabilities to help evaluate the overall fiscal health of governments. This…
The Civic Federation released its annual analysis of the City of Chicago’s proposed budget this week. Included in the report was a section dedicated to the budgetary impact of the City’s four pension funds and evaluating trends in their funded status. This blog post reproduces that chapter for readers who might not otherwise see it. Pensions in the FY2022 City of Chicago Budget The City of…
The State of Illinois received some good fiscal news this summer: two rating agencies upgraded the State’s credit ratings and a third revised its outlook to positive. The credit upgrades were the first in in two decades, reversing years of negative news. The State of Illinois currently has approximately $41.9 billion in outstanding general obligation and Build Illinois revenue debt outstanding.[…
The Illinois Department of Revenue recently announced that the final equalization factor for the Cook County 2019 property assessment year (taxes payable in 2020) is 2.9160. Each year the Illinois Department of Revenue calculates equalization factors for every county in order to achieve uniform property assessment throughout the State. The 2019 final equalization factor of 2.9160 is slightly…
