Chicago Public Schools

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12-Year Short-Term Liability Trends for Chicago, Cook County and Chicago Public Schools

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…

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Chicago Public Schools Reports Reduction to Fund Balance

The Chicago Public Schools audited financial statements for fiscal year 2014 released last week indicate the deterioration of the District’s fiscal condition continued through the end of FY2014. The District’s most recent Comprehensive…

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Chicagoans’ Pension Obligations Per Capita Rose 199.4% Since 2004

The Civic Federation’s previous blog examined the long-term debt of eight major local governments in northeastern Illinois. This…

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Long-Term Debt for Eight Major Chicago Governments Rises by 59.2% in 10-Year Period

The Civic Federation regularly analyzes and comments on the budgets and audited financial statements of eight major local governments in northeastern Illinois: 1.…

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Change in Public Pension Plan Investment Return Assumptions 2001-2013

The Civic Federation and IIFS blogs have written extensively about reductions to assumed rates of return on investment by State and some local public pension plans over the last several years. These changes are part of a nationwide…

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How Property Taxes are Distributed in the City of Chicago

The Cook County Clerk’s Office annually releases a tax rate report that provides the tax rates for various taxing agencies within Cook County. It is important for property taxpayers to have an accurate picture of which governments receive…

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Status of Local Pension Funding Fiscal Year 2012

Chicago-area public employee pension funding levels continued to decline in FY2012, with total unfunded liabilities for the ten funds analyzed rising to $37.2 billion from $32.0 billion in FY2011. On average, the ten funds analyzed had an…

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Pension Funding Basics: Assets and Liabilities

The most basic question about a pension fund is whether its assets are sufficient to cover total liabilities incurred. In this blog post, we examine the aggregate pension liabilities and Other Post…

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CPS Balances its FY2015 Budget with Accounting Maneuver that Changes the Time Period Used to Recognize Revenues

CPS is balancing its budget in FY2015 in large part by shifting the time period used to report revenues from 30 to 60 days. This will allow the District to access $648.0 million in revenues that it would not otherwise have been able to use…

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Chicago Public Schools FY2015 Proposed Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation does not support Chicago Public Schools proposed $6.8 billion budget for FY2015. The short-sighted budget does nothing to address the District’s grave fiscal crisis and is balanced only by an accounting maneuver that…