This segment discusses a fiscal roadmap for reform announced by Mayor Emanuel to the Board of Directors of the Civic Federation on April 29. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said the City will require more revenue to achieve the goals the Mayor outlined in his four-year plan.
This article covers an announcement by Mayor Emanuel on April 29 that outlined steps the city will take in the next four years to address Chicago’s biggest financial challenges. These steps include ending the use of "scoop and toss" refunding bonds, eliminating derivative instruments known as swaps and rebuilding the City’s rainy day fund. The Civic Federation said these…
This panel discussion focuses on the State of Illinois’ nearly 800 funds, many of which do not receive the same level of scrutiny as the general funds portion of the budget. The special funds gained attention when Governor Rauner and the Illinois General Assembly recently agreed to sweep $1.3 billion from the funds to close a budget gap. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall…
To help cope with a massive budget deficit as State resources continue to fall in the coming fiscal year, Governor Bruce Rauner has proposed reducing or ending some statutorily required transfers that provide funding for programs and government services outside the General Funds budget. Total transfers out of the General Funds, excluding amounts set aside to pay for debt service, are reduced by…
The article looks at Governor Bruce Rauner’s first 100 days in office. On the State budget, the Civic Federation said most of the first 100 days has been spent addressing shortfalls in the current FY2015 budget rather than discussion on the $6 billion gap in the upcoming FY2016 budget.
This article examines the options available to Chicago Public Schools as it faces a $1 billion budget shortfall next year with little to no reserve funds. As discussed in the article, the Civic Federation does not support allowing municipalities direct access to bankruptcy. Instead, the Civic Federation’s Pension Committee has proposed the creation of a Local Government Protection Authority, an…
A week after passing legislation to address a $1.6 billion budget deficit before the end of the fiscal year in June, the State swept $300 million into its operating accounts from funds designated to pay for annual transportation construction projects. An additional $200 million sweep of sales tax funds collected by the State to be distributed to local governments has yet to be transferred over to…
The State of Illinois recently enacted legislation designed to close a $1.6 billion budget gap for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2015. This blog post reviews the causes of the operating deficit and examines Public Acts 99-0001 and 99-0002, which were signed by Governor Bruce Rauner on March 27. As explained here, the State faced a steep decline in revenues in FY2015 because of the…
Short-term or current liabilities are financial obligations that must be satisfied within one year. They can include short-term debt, accounts payable, accrued payroll and other current liabilities. This blog post presents 12-year trends for 1) total short-term liabilities in the Governmental Funds and 2) short-term liabilities as a percentage of operating revenues for the three largest local…
This article looks at both mayoral candidates’ proposals for addressing the City of Chicago’s financial challenges, which include severely underfunded pension funds, a high debt level and Chicago Public Schools’ $1 billion deficit. The Civic Federation said that even after pension fund reforms it is hard to see how these liabilities could be fully addressed without future property tax increases.
