On January 11, 2012, the State of Illinois sold $800 million of General Obligation bonds to support capital projects. The bond offering included $525 million of tax-exempt bonds, as well as $275 million of taxable bonds to reimburse other governments for previously completed projects. The sale attracted considerable attention because it came just days after a rating agency reduced the State…
This panel discussion tackles recent changes to hours at the Chicago Public Library system. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said that reductions to city services are a necessary part of eliminating Chicago’s deficit. Mr. Msall is joined by AFSCME Spokesman Anders Lindall, 40th Ward Alderman John Arena and 45th Ward Alderman Pat O’Connor. Watch January 9, 2012 - Library Hours on…
Governor Pat Quinn released a three-year budget projection for the State of Illinois this week that shows only minor improvements in the State’s financial circumstances in the near term and declining prospects for Illinois’ future fiscal stability. The budget plan, required by law to be issued the first week of January, provides an update to the FY2012 State budget after changes made during the…
In 2011 the Civic Federation blog provided weekly context, information and perspective on government budgets and fiscal issues across Illinois. Posts in 2011 focused on FY2012 local government budget analysis and the severe challenges facing local government pension funds, as well as a series of recommendations for improving the fiscal sustainability of the City of Chicago and Cook…
In 2011 the IIFS blog provided weekly context, information and perspective on key fiscal issues in the State of Illinois. Posts in 2011 focused on analysis of FY2012 Illinois budget negotiations, analysis of the ongoing Illinois pension crisis and timely research on other fiscal issues impacting the State of Illinois. The following is a selection of the year’s posts. Analysis of…
(The full text of this article is available only to the publication’s subscribers.) This article is an overview of the Civic Federation's analyses of the FY2012 budgets for the nine local governments it studies, as summarized in two recent posts on the Civic Federation blog: Local Government Budget Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Analysis Summary Part I and Part II. The posts identify three common fiscal…
This article discusses the State of Illinois’ upcoming issuances of general obligation bonds to fund its ongoing public works program. Plans include bond sales of between $500 million and $750 million on January 11 and additional bond sales up to $750 million in March following the release of Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed FY2013 budget. The article cites the Civic Federation’s projection that…
In the past two years, nine states have passed laws to reduce automatic annual increases in pension benefits for current retirees. The latest example is Rhode Island, which in November 2011 enacted legislation to suspend annual pension increases until the state’s retirement systems are more adequately funded. The table below, based primarily on data from the National Conference of State…
The focus of this article is an announcement by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration that it exceeded its budget-trimming goal by cutting $8 million more than the $75 million that was targeted in May. The Civic Federation said the announcement represented a significant step forward, but cautioned that the city is still in a financial crisis with a structural deficit and severely under-funded…
On December 16, 2011, the Governor signed half of a tax incentive package that was sent to him earlier in the week by the legislature. The package of tax incentives had failed to advance earlier in the veto session. After splitting a bill that passed the Senate but failed in the House into two separate measures, the House approved both sets of incentives on December 12, 2011. The Senate…
