The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) proposed FY2015 budget of nearly $1.4 billion. The budget represents an improved level of fiscal stability made possible by the CTA’s efforts in past years to secure its pension fund and modernize its labor practices. The agency is working under a more sustainable labor agreement, no longer relies heavily on one-time revenue…
Full Report Discusses Recent Progress, Fiscal Uncertainty Ahead In a report released today, the Civic Federation supports Cook County’s proposed FY2015 operating budget of $3.7 billion and praises the work of Board President Preckwinkle and her administration to reform County operations. The full 95-page report is available here. “Under the leadership of President Preckwinkle and her team, Cook…
The Civic Federation supports Cook County’s proposed FY2015 operating budget of $3.7 billion for holding the property tax levy relatively flat and not including any new fines or fees. Instead, a $168.9 million shortfall is closed through a combination of revenue increases, expenditure reductions and management efficiencies. Under the leadership of President Preckwinkle and her team, Cook…
The provisions of Public Act 98-0622 will not go into effect until January 1, 2015, but the changes to Chicago Park District employee and retiree pension benefit levels contained in the legislation have already reduced the fund’s unfunded liability by $109.4 million or 18.5% and increased the funded ratio by five percentage points to 45.5%. Those changes, described in more detail in this blog…
The State of Illinois will need to increase contributions to its pension funds by $682.0 million in the next budget year, according to preliminary amounts released by the State’s five retirement systems. Total pension contributions required by State law are estimated at $7.5 billion in the year that ends on June 30, 2016, up from $6.9 billion in FY2015. The steep increase is mainly due to…
This article discusses the Civic Federation’s analysis of the FY2015 City of Chicago budget. The Civic Federation supports the budget for its structural changes and actions toward long-term stability, but is deeply concerned about how the City will manage rising pension costs and debt services payments in future years.
The total unfunded liabilities for the State and local public employee pensions that Chicago residents fund reached $19,579 per capita for fiscal year 2012. That is up from $6,175 per capita in FY2003. Like comparing unfunded liability to payroll, calculating the unfunded liability per capita offers a sense of scale for unfunded liabilities. The UAAL per capita for the four City of Chicago…
This article reviews the FY2015 Budget Announcement from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The spending plan is built on the assumption that the Illinois General Assembly will enact pension reform for the City’s police and fire pension funds before the City’s required annual pension contribution increases by $550 million in 2016. The Civic Federation said the City needs an alternate plan for addressing…
This article discusses Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s FY2015 Budget announcement for the City of Chicago on October 15. The Civic Federation said the budget is fairly conservative in addressing the city’s $297 million deficit, but lacks a detailed, long-term plan for addressing the City’s underfunded police and fire pension systems.
This article covers the Civic Federation’s annual Status of Local Pensions report that looks at the funding levels of ten Chicago-area public pension funds. The funds continued to decline, showing an aggregate actuarial funding level of 45.5% in FY2012 down from 74.5% in FY2003. The Civic Federation said this pension funding crisis is the result of decades of oversight, and even with recent…
