The following posts were among the most highly read on the Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability’s blog in 2014 and represent the most closely followed Illinois fiscal issues of the year: State pension reform and the State budget. States Face Legal Challenges Over Reduced Pension COLAs January 3, 2014 This blog reviews legal challenges to reductions in state pension COLAs in…
On a preliminary trip to Springfield after winning the November election, Governor-elect Bruce Rauner held a press conference to draw attention to some of the gimmicks included in the current State budget, including interfund borrowing. Mr. Rauner called the plan to use $650 million borrowed from Special State Funds for FY2015 General Funds operations “fundamentally wrong.” The Governor-elect…
The Illinois House adjourned on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 with no further session days scheduled before the 99th General Assembly begins in January 2015. The Illinois Senate is expected to adjourn on December 4, 2014 and has one addition session day scheduled for January 13, 2015. This will mark the end of the 98th General Assembly. At the end of each two-year legislative session, all of the…
Shortly after a Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge ruled that the pension reform law passed in Illinois almost a year ago violated the State constitution, Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced she will be seeking an immediate appeal of the decision to the State Supreme Court. Judge John W. Belz issued the Circuit Court’s decision on Friday, November 21, 2014, one day after hearing oral…
Nearly all indicators point to positive economic growth in the State of Illinois for the fifth consecutive year in 2015 but due to a change in income tax rates, State government finances remain in crisis. In a report issued earlier this month on the results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2015, which began on July 1, 2014, the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) reviewed the State’s…
When the Illinois Jobs Now! capital spending program was approved in 2010 the State also approved a series of dedicated revenue sources intended to fund new borrowing costs outside the State operating budget. As previously sold capital bonds were retired, it was anticipated that the cost for new bond funded capital projects would fall outside the operating budget. However, five years into the…
As previously discussed here, the enacted FY2015 budget for the State of Illinois includes several budgetary gimmicks intended to make up for the loss of revenues associated with the expiration of the temporary income tax increases halfway through the fiscal year. Two of these measures include shifting funds to pay for FY2015 General Funds expenses, which masks the growth in spending when…
Whether the State of Illinois has spent more or less on education in the last five years has recently been the subject of intense debate. This blog post examines various factors that affect the calculation of education spending trends and expands on the Civic Federation’s recent report on the State’s enacted budget for FY2015. The Illinois State Board of Education provides resources for…
(The full content of this article is only available to the publication’s subscribers.) This article discuses findings in the FY2015 State of Illinois Enacted Budget analysis recently completed by the Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation. The analysis found that while General Funds expenditures appear to decline in FY2015, net expenditures actually increase by $…
This article reviews the FY2015 State of Illinois Enacted Budget analysis by the Civic Federation’s Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability. The analysis found the budget relies on borrowing and will increase the State’s backlog of unpaid bills to an estimated $6.4 billion, marking the first year-end increase in the backlog since FY2012.
