Taxes and Fees

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Exemptions ‘Tinker’ with Your Homeowner Property Tax

This article discusses how Cook County property tax exemptions can drastically influence the amount a property owner ultimately pays in taxes. The article cites the Civic Federation’s…

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Watchdog group praises Preckwinkle, but dings her, too

In this blog post, Greg Hinz discusses the conclusions of the Civic Federation's "Cook County Modernization 100-Day Accountability Report." The Federation found…

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Civic Federation Finds Considerable Progress Toward Cook County Modernization

Concerns Remain about Independence of the Health System, Future Budgets (CHICAGO) A new Civic Federation report released today finds that Cook County has made considerable progress toward modernizing its operations, but still faces…

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Cook County Modernization 100-Day Accountability Report

The Civic Federation’s Cook County Modernization 100-Day Accountability Report continues the work of our Cook County Modernization Project. This report includes detailed information on the status of all 36 recommendations from the Civic…

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100 Days in Cook County

Today marks the 100th day since Toni Preckwinkle took office as President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. During that time, the County has begun to implement a variety of reforms including many of the recommendations from the…

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Cook County Needs to Continue Modernization Process

The Cook County Board recently passed the County’s FY2011 budget. The budget included…

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Cook County Board Approves FY2011 Budget

On Saturday February 26th, the Cook County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the FY2011 Annual Appropriations Ordinance. In the…

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Cook County Board votes to roll back sales-tax increase by 2013

This article discusses the Cook County Board of Commissioners vote to rollback the remaining portion of the 2008 penny sales tax increase by 2013. The Civic Federation says that the tax increase was established without a solid plan for how…

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Chicago mayor race: Softer Rahm Emanuel bids for hard task

This segment discusses Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral campaign. It cites the warning in the Civic Federation’s “

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Governor Proposes Borrowing to Pay Business Tax Refund Backlog

In order to pay income tax refunds owed to taxpayers, the State of Illinois sets aside a percentage of income tax receipts received throughout the year and deposits them into a special fund. Different percentages apply to individuals and…