Today marks the 100th day since Toni Preckwinkle took office as President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. During that time, the County has begun to implement a variety of reforms including many of the recommendations from the Civic Federation’s Cook County Modernization Report. The administration released a 100-day report card this morning, which highlights what the administration…
The Illinois House of Representatives took a significant step in its annual budget negotiations this week when legislators unanimously passed a resolution limiting General Funds spending to $33.2 billion. The cap on spending is tied to the total estimated revenues for FY2012 set by the House Revenue Committee and is significantly lower than the $36.8 billion annual spending limit included…
The Cook County Board recently passed the County’s FY2011 budget. The budget included large reductions to most County agencies and reflects difficult choices made by the County leadership. The budget also began implementation of some of the recommendations from the Cook County Modernization Report. However, the FY2011 budget is just the start of the heavy lifting that will be necessary to…
In this article about the budget-balancing challenges facing City of Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel, the Civic Federation says the next Mayor must make the City's finances his top priority.
This article discusses the fiscal challenges facing Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel. It cites a report by the Civic Federation that says the next mayor must make major fiscal reforms to correct the City's deteriorating finances.
This editorial about the State of Illinois' plan to borrow to pay down its past-due bills cites the Civic Federation, which says the plan is financially reckless.
For the second year in a row, the State of Illinois raised funds in the municipal bond market to make its annual pension contributions. On February 23, 2011, the State finalized the sale of $3.7 billion worth of Pension Obligation Bonds (POB) for FY2011. Similar to its FY2010 POB sale, Illinois’ bonds that sold last week were also oversubscribed, meaning more orders were placed for the…
On Saturday February 26th, the Cook County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the FY2011 Annual Appropriations Ordinance. In the Civic Federation’s analysis of the Executive Budget Recommendation, the Federation supported Board President Preckwinkle’s budget plan and commended the administration for its efforts to reform governmental operations. The amended budget as approved by the…
This article discusses the Cook County Board of Commissioners vote to rollback the remaining portion of the 2008 penny sales tax increase by 2013. The Civic Federation says that the tax increase was established without a solid plan for how to use the revenue.
In this segment on Swiss Public Radio (in German) about Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral campaign, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall talks about the financial challenges the next mayor of Chicago must face.
