How Well Do Chicago Area Local Government Capital Improvement Plans Follow Best Practices?
As a follow-up to the Capital Planning Overview, this blog post summarizes information contained in the Civic Federation’s FY2014…
As a follow-up to the Capital Planning Overview, this blog post summarizes information contained in the Civic Federation’s FY2014…
The following posts were among the most highly read on the Civic Federation blog in 2013 and represent some of the most closely followed local government issues this year:…
Last week marked the end of the FY2014 budget season for the eight local governments monitored…
The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) proposed FY2014 operating budget of nearly $1.4 billion. After two years of difficult but necessary steps to stabilize its operations, the CTA has produced a balanced…
On October 25, 2013, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the CTA’s bond rating to A1 from Aa3 and lowered its…
As part of its ongoing analysis of State and local government budgets, the Civic Federation also reviews proposed capital budgets along with any planning documents provided in support of infrastructure investments. Although many…
Four large local government pension funds in the Chicago area reduced their expected investment rates of return for fiscal year 2012. While intended to make the funds’ actuarial assumptions more realistic, these decisions will also have…
Over the next few weeks, many Chicago-area local governments will be releasing their proposed budgets for fiscal year 2014. In preparation for the upcoming budget releases, this blog will recap the Civic Federation’s significant…
This week the Civic Federation released its annual Status of Local Pension Funding report. The purpose of this report is to compile and analyze basic…