Cook County

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Effective Property Tax Rates 1999-2008: Selected Municipalities in Northeastern Illinois

This report compares effective property tax rates in selected communities around metropolitan Chicago and finds that while all communities’ effective tax rates increased in 2008, rates have mostly declined since 1999. The report also finds…

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Cook County Taking Action to Improve Transparency

At a Cook County Board of Commissioners meeting, held on June 15, 2010, Cook County Commissioner Joseph Moreno called on County staff members to explain a series of errors in the meeting’s agenda, noting a lengthy list of deletions,…

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Cook County Commissioners Approve Strategic Plan for County Health System

On July 14, 2010, Cook County Commissioners approved by a vote of 9 to 3 a strategic plan to reorient the County’s health system more toward outpatient care and away from inpatient hospital services. The five-year plan calls for closing…

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The Tentative 2009 Cook County Equalization Factor is 3.1062. What Does That Mean?

The Illinois Department of Revenue has announced that the tentative equalization factor for the Cook County 2009 property assessment year (taxes payable in late 2010) is…

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Cook County Sales Tax Falls by 0.5% Today

The sales tax rate on general merchandise in Cook County declines by 0.5 percentage point on July 1, 2010. This rolls back half of the 1.0 percentage point increase imposed by the Cook County Board of Commissioners effective July 1,…

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Sales Taxes: Reports and Projections

Last month the State of Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) released a report entitled “…

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Cook County Health System’s Independent Board Becomes Permanent

In a victory for good government, the Cook County Board of Commissioners on June 1, 2010 voted 13-3 to make permanent the independent Board of Directors overseeing the…

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Cook County Transition Reports and Reform Proposals

Each year the Civic Federation publishes an analysis of Cook County’s proposed Executive Budget (see e.g. Cook…

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Cook County Health System Withstands Challenge to Purchasing Decision

The ordinance that established the Cook County Health and Hospitals System (Health System) in 2008 specifically granted its independent Board of Directors…

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Cook County Township Government FAQ Part 1

In Cook County, township government often gets overlooked amidst the various local governments including municipalities, school districts, park districts, community college districts and others. In order to shed light on this largely…