The Civic Federation supports the City Colleges of Chicago's tentative $473.6 million FY2008 budget because the district will reduce its overall property tax burden, exercize fiscal restraint, and has increased the amount of time allowed for public comment and review. The Federation is concerned, however, that the budget does not contain current personnel or enrollment projections and predicts…
CIVIC FEDERATION COMMENDS CITY COLLEGES LEADERSHIP FOR FISCAL RESTRAINT District to Reduce Overall Property Tax Burden 7.8% in FY2008 The Civic Federation will announce its support of the $473.6 million FY2008 City Colleges of Chicago budget at the district’s public hearing on Tuesday, July 17th at 9:00 a.m. The Federation approves of the budget because the district has reduced its property tax…
The Civic Federation opposes the massive expansion of health care and long-term borrowing proposed in the FY2008 State budget recommendation, but offers qualified support for sale/lease of the State lottery and for reasonable revenue enhancements to fund education and mass transit. The Federation also urges the General Assembly to implement pension benefit reforms.
This report reviews the features and costs of the current State of Illinois employee group health insurance program, examines the fiscal impact of the program on the State operating budget, and makes policy recommendations for containing the program's rising costs.
This report compares Illinois school districts' financial management and accountability standards with nationwide best practices, and makes policy recommendations regarding steps Illinois should take to ensure greater financial accountability from school districts.
This report provides a trend analysis of indicators that measure the financial health and performance of ten major local government pension funds from 1997 to 2005. It finds a combined 16.5 billion dollars in unfunded liabilities for the ten funds, and makes numerous recommendations on legislative actions that should be taken to slow the downward spiral of pension underfunding.
This issue brief describes dedicated revenue sources for state pension funds and recent proposals for dedicated revenue sources in Illinois. It then discusses important features of an effective dedicated pension revenue source.
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2007 include public pension reform, property tax exemptions and assessment reform, revision of the Regional Transportation Authority Act, tax increment financing disclosure, timely county audits, and other post employment benefit trust fund authorization.
The Civic Federation offers qualified support for Cook County’s FY2007 Budget based on the County’s plan to meet its 502 million dollar budget deficit with substantial spending cuts rather than tax increases. The Civic Federation opposes, however, the County’s plan to borrow 104 million dollars to make its FY2007 pension contribution, and calls upon the County to implement an effective…
CHICAGO – Citing a looming financial disaster, the Civic Federation announced today its qualified support for President Todd Stroger’s $3.0 billion spending plan because it faces up to the catastrophic state of the County’s finances by making necessary spending cuts. The full text of the Civic Federation’s analysis of Cook County’s FY2007 budget is available online at www.civicfed.org. The Civic…
