Cook County

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Comparing Property Tax Burdens Across Communities

This week the Civic Federation released its annual Effective Property Tax Rates report. The report…

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Effective Property Tax Rates 1999-2007: Selected Municipalities in Northeastern Illinois

This report compares effective property tax rates in selected communities around metropolitan Chicago and finds that many communities experienced a slight increase in their property tax burden in 2007. However, Chicago continues to have…

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Civic Federation Supports Legislation to Reduce Cook County Veto Override Threshold

The Civic Federation supports Illinois State Senator Dan Kotowski's legislation to reduce the number of votes necessary to override a veto by the Cook County Board President from four-fifths to three-fifths of commissioners in order to…

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Civic Federation Supports Legislation to Reduce Cook County Veto Override Threshold

At a press conference on September 8, 2009, Illinois State Senator Dan Kotowski and Illinois State Representative Julie Hamos announced a renewed effort to lower the…

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Tweeting Towards Transparency (Part 1)

A few local governments in Cook County have recently begun utilizing Twitter, a free micro-blogging website, in order to provide quick updates on relevant developments and information about governmental…

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Finance Committee of the Cook County Board Approves a Partial Sales Tax Rollback

On July 21, 2009 the Finance Committee of the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to roll back the county’s sales tax rate from 1.75% to 1.25%. If adopted, the amendment would take effect January 1, 2010 and lower the aggregate…

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Status of Local Pension Funding Fiscal Year 2007: An Evaluation of Ten Local Government Employee Pension Funds in Cook County

This report provides a trend analysis of indicators that measure the financial health and performance of ten major local government pension funds from 1998 to 2007, the most recent year for which audited data are available. It finds that…

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Recommendations to Reform Public Pension Boards of Trustees in Illinois

This report reviews best practices in the composition of public pension boards of trustees nationwide, and makes recommendations on improvements to pension boards in Illinois.

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Civic Federation 2009 Legislative Priorities

The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2009 include public pension reform, the dissolving of the Illinois International Port District, creating a new governing board for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, requiring all…

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Civic Federation Urges Cook County Commissioners to Reject Borrowing That May Cost Taxpayers an Additional $214 Million

The Civic Federation urges Cook County Commissioners to reject the proposed $2.9 billion FY2009 County operating budget, which is based on $364.0 million in ill-considered borrowing for operational expenses.