This article is about the City of Chicago's plan to replenish $50 million into its reserve fund due to slightly better-than-projected tax receipts. The Civic Federation says that despite the modestly good news, the City must still fill a $…
Although the State of Illinois' FY2011 tax amnesty program brought in more than $700 million of delinquent tax payments owed by taxpayers and business, only $12 million of that revenue can be considered new funds. As previously discussed…
The three largest municipal governments analyzed by the Civic Federation are the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the City of Chicago and Cook County. All three began their FY2011 budget processes projecting large budget shortfalls:…
General Funds represent the largest component of the State of Illinois budget and are mainly used to support the regular operating and administrative expenses of state agencies through annual appropriations by the General Assembly.…
The Civic Federation analyzes the budgets of nine Chicago area local governments. One important indicator that the Federation utilizes to assess the financial health of these municipalities is their fund balance level. In particular, we…
In this interview, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall and Chicago 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack discuss Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s proposal to reduce the size of the Chicago City Council. Mr. Msall says that the City…
This article profiles the fiscal troubles facing Illinois Governor Pat Quinn as he tries to balance the State’s budget. It…
Although it includes deep cuts to some agencies and programs, the FY2012 budget proposed by Governor Pat Quinn includes increases in other areas that would more than offset the reductions. In all, the proposed budget for FY2012 would…
Cook County plans to reduce financial assistance to its Health and Hospitals System by nearly 33% this year, from $411.5 million in FY2010 to $276.3 million in FY2011. The County will face major challenges related to the Health System’s…
In this blog post, Greg Hinz discusses the conclusions of the Civic Federation's "Cook County Modernization 100-Day Accountability Report." The Federation found…
