City of Chicago

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Civic Federation Discusses Chicago Garbage Collection

Chicago Public Television Garbage Collection 12/17/2009 Online edition This segment on the “Chicago Tonight” news program examines Chicago’s ward-based waste collection system. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall was interviewed for…

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Civic Federation Blog Provides Rapid Response Analysis

The redesign of the Civic Federation website in July has provided the public, government officials, and the media better access to the Federation’s analyses of government services in Illinois. The regularly-updated Civic Federation blog…

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Selected Consumer Taxes in the City of Chicago: December 2009

This brief provides an updated compilation of selected consumer taxes, including rates and descriptions, in effect in the City of Chicago on December 1, 2009.  It includes such taxes as the sales tax, gas tax, amusement tax, lease tax…

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Civic Federation 2010 Legislative Priorities

The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2010 include public pension reform, requiring state government to develop and implement performance measurement and a capital improvement plan, the dissolving of the Illinois International…

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Protecting Proceeds From Long-Term Asset Leases

In two previous blog posts [here and…

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The “Long” and “Short” of City Asset Deals

In FY2010 the City of Chicago proposes to close a majority of its FY2010 $520 million budget deficit with proceeds it received from the long-term leases of its parking meters and the Chicago Skyway. This begs the question: how has the…

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City of Chicago FY2010 Proposed Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation opposes the FY2010 City of Chicago budget of $6.14 billion because it is unsustainable and relies too heavily on one-time reserve funds to close a $520.0 million budget deficit. The proposed drastic draw down of long-…

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Illinois General Assembly Passes Cook County Veto Override Measure

The Illinois Senate voted today to approve House Bill 4625, which means both houses of the…

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Will my property tax bill go up or down?

The property tax rates released yesterday by the Cook County Clerk show that the composite tax rates in the City of Chicago and many municipalities declined slightly from the…

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Chicagoans, can you spare $10,037?

Data from the most recent audited financial statements of Illinois’ state and local government pension funds shows that the total unfunded liabilities for pensions supported by the taxes of Chicago residents reached $10,037 per capita for…