The declining health of public employee pension funds throughout the State of Illinois is primarily due to two causes: inadequate employer contributions over a sustained period and recent investment losses. This blog will discuss the role of investment rate of return in public employee pension funding and provide an update on the investment returns of Chicago-area pension funds in FY2012, the…
This annual report compares effective property tax rates in the six-county region of northeastern Illinois between 2003 and 2012. Effective tax rates for nearly all selected communities rose between 2011 and 2012, the most recent year for which data are available. Among the 12 selected Cook County communities, the Civic Federation found Harvey had the highest effective tax rate for residential…
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 Employment Benefit (OPEB) liabilities of ten large local government pension funds in the Chicago area and their collective assets.[1] Liabilities are calculated using actuarial assumptions about…
The difference between a pension fund’s assets and accrued liabilities is known as the unfunded liability. The unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL) is calculated by subtracting the actuarial value of the assets from the actuarial accrued liability (AAL) of each fund. One of the functions of this indicator is to measure a fund’s ability to bring assets in line with liabilities. Healthy…
Public Act 98-0641, the City of Chicago’s pension reform bill, originally called for an increase in property taxes to help fund the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund (MEABF) and the Laborers’ and Retirement Board Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund (LABF) of Chicago. However, in response to a lack of support for the property tax provision of the bill, it was revised to remove the…
The Civic Federation today released its annual estimate of the full value of real estate in Chicago and the Cook County suburbs. After the rate of decline in estimated property values slowed for the County as a whole in 2011, the rate of decline increased again in 2012. Tax year 2012 is the most recent year for which data are available. The 2012 estimate of the full value of property in Cook…
This report provides estimates of the total market value of real property in Cook County from 2003-2012 and shows how property value is spread among the City of Chicago, the northern and the southern suburbs. The full market value of real estate in Cook County was approximately $414.4 billion in tax assessment year 2012. This represents a decline of $28.4 billion or 6.4% from the 2011…
This week the City of Chicago released its Annual Financial Analysis for 2014. According to an executive order issued by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on May 20, 2011, the Office of Budget and Management is mandated to produce a financial analysis of the City budget by July 31st of each year. The report includes: A financial condition analysis that covers the previous ten years, including a…
A new report by Cook County Clerk David Orr released on July 16 finds that 68.2% or 103 of Chicago’s 151 tax increment financing (TIF) districts experienced revenue declines in 2013. Only 30 TIFs reported revenue increases, while 21 of the districts did not collect any revenues at all. Suburban Cook County TIF district revenues also decreased, falling by 2% from nearly $266.3 million to $260.9…
Under Illinois law, the State is required to share a certain portion of state income tax receipts with municipal and county governments in Illinois through the Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF). The state revenue shared with local governments is a legislatively required transfer from the General Fund to the Local Government Distributive Fund. The Illinois Comptroller then…
