This editorial mentions the Civic Federation as one of the many groups opposed to Governor Pat Quinn’s plan to legalize video poker to help finance the State’s $31 billion infrastructure repair bill.
In this column, Mark Brown discusses the State’s current fiscal crisis, and the choices that the State made to get to this point, and the possible loss of State services in the future. He quotes the Civic Federation, which says that Illinois’ fiscal problems are worse than California’s because that state has ceased postponing hard budgetary decisions.
Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation, is interviewed on this segment of Chicago Tonight about the State’s budgetary problems. Msall points out that the State is pushing off its hard decisions to a later date in favor of borrowing today.
In this blog post, Greg Hinz discusses Illinois’ capital plan and the various infrastructure needs throughout the State. Hinz notes that the Civic Federation has urged lawmakers to prioritize spending through a capital improvement plan before any funds were allocated.
In a blog post about the programs the Illinois capital budget will fund, Greg Hinz mentions the Civic Federation as one of the major supporters of the State producing a capital improvement plan as a way of prioritizing projects in the budget.
A new study from the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York reports that total state tax collections for the first quarter of 2009 declined by 11.8% from the same quarter last year. This is the largest decline since 1963 and can be attributed in large part to the impact of the current recession. There were sharp reductions in collections for all three of the major state revenue…
In order to make its capital selection process more transparent in FY2009, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has revised the way in which is selects and prioritizes capital projects. CTA’s revised capital selection process includes an additional layer of accountability with the creation of a new Capital Governance Board consisting of five of the CTA’s executive vice presidents, its budget…
As Governor Pat Quinn searches for unaffordable programs to cut from the state budget, the fate of the troubled Howe Developmental Center in Tinley Park deserves close attention. Howe, a state-run facility for the developmentally disabled, was decertified by federal authorities in 2007 after reports of substandard care and safety violations, including deaths of residents in unexplained…
Today the Civic Federation released its analysis of the FY2010 City Colleges Tentative Annual Operating Budget, supporting the District’s $492.1 million spending plan. The Federation believes the District is proposing a prudent budget, increasing appropriations by 0.9% over adjusted FY2009 budgeted appropriations, freezing the property tax levy for the next two years and proposing an…
The Civic Federation will announce its support for the proposed $492.1 million FY2010 City Colleges of Chicago budget at public hearing today. The Federation’s 39-page analysis found that the proposed budget compensates for uncertain State funding and will hold the City Colleges property tax levy flat for the next two years. Visit civicfed.org to download the report and read staff blog posts…
