The Illinois Senate voted today to approve House Bill 4625, which means both houses of the Illinois General Assembly have now approved the same bill to reduce the veto override threshold for the Cook County Board of Commissioners to the three-fifths level common to most governments. The number of votes now needed to overturn a veto from the Cook County Board President is an unusually high four-…
The property tax rates released yesterday by the Cook County Clerk show that the composite tax rates in the City of Chicago and many municipalities declined slightly from the previous year. However, many property owners will still see higher property tax bills arriving in the mail soon. The Cook County property tax system is so complex that it is impossible to predict exactly how the new tax…
Data from the most recent audited financial statements of Illinois’ state and local government pension funds shows that the total unfunded liabilities for pensions supported by the taxes of Chicago residents reached $10,037 per capita for fiscal year 2008. Property taxes paid by Chicago residents (both owners and renters) support the four pension funds for City of Chicago employees as well as the…
One of the Civic Federation’s ongoing concerns has been transparency in the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) by the City of Chicago and State of Illinois. Although the Civic Federation supports the use of TIF as municipal economic development tool, we believe that there is insufficient transparency in the availability and quality of TIF information provided to the public. The Civic…
This week the Civic Federation released its annual Effective Property Tax Rates report. The report highlights the fact that in 2007 property tax burdens for many Northeastern Illinois communities rose, while property tax rates in Chicago are still among the lowest in the area. Effective property tax rates is an average calculation that offers a method of comparing residents’ property tax burdens…
Did you ever wonder how your property tax dollars are spent by the City of Chicago? How many people work for the Department of Streets and Sanitation? How much those employees are paid? What kinds of taxes and fees the City levies and how much revenue it gets from each one? The answers to these and many other questions can be found in the City of Chicago’s budget documents and audited financial…
The Civic Federation and our consultant L.E.K. Consulting testified yesterday before the Finance Committee of the Chicago City Council about our review of the financial aspects of the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid. The Federation delivered its full 90-page report and 22-page narrative summary to all fifty aldermen on August 26, 2009. On June 30, 2009, the Chicago City Council had asked the Civic…
The Civic Federation and L.E.K. Consulting's review of the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid has determined that the operating budget provides adequate protection for taxpayers, but the development of the Olympic Village exposes the City of Chicago to continuing real estate risks that must be managed. Click here to read the full 90-page Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Review.
Since 2004, the City of Chicago has transacted three major long term asset leases worth over $3.5 billion. The Chicago Skyway (2004) – A 99-year lease with Cintra-Macquarie with a transaction value of $1.83 billion. Downtown Parking Garages (2006) – A 99-year lease with Morgan Stanley. This transaction was also with the Chicago Park District. The total value of the transaction is $563…
Police, parks, streets, schools, community colleges, public hospitals, elections, courts, jails, mosquito abatement, sewage treatment…these are just a few of the services that, in Illinois, are provided by many different local governments. Illinois has more units of local government than any other state in the nation, with 6,994 as of October 2007. Many of these governments rely on property…
