As stated in its analysis released today, the Civic Federation opposes the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) proposed $5.2 billion operating budget for FY2013, which drains all General Fund reserves to help close a $665 million budget deficit and leaves the District with no identifiable plan to address a devastating financial reality. The Federation urges the Chicago Board of Education to reject the proposed budget in favor of a financially responsible plan that accounts for current and growing…
The Civic Federation opposes the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) proposed $5.2 billion FY2013 operating budget which drains all General Fund reserves to help close a $665 million budget deficit and leaves the District with no identifiable plan to address a devastating financial reality. The Federation urges the Board of Education to reject the proposed budget in favor of a financially responsible plan that takes into account current and future liabilities. Draining all the General Fund reserves…
On May 2, 2012, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) released a capital budget via a new interactive website. The proposed capital improvement plan (CIP) includes a FY2013 capital budget and a five-year capital plan for FY2013-FY2017. In addition, the plan describes CPS’ 165 ongoing capital projects and their statuses. These projects total approximately $765 million and have been ongoing since 2006. The website features a summary page for each project included under the capital plan. The project…
In order to address sometimes inconsistent application of reporting standards for fund balance by governments, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued GASB Statement No. 54: Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions in February 2009. GASB Statement No. 54 shifts the focus of fund balance reporting from the availability of fund resources for budgeting purposes to the “extent to which the government is bound to honor constraints on the specific purposes for…
Data from the most recent audited financial statements of Illinois’ state and local government pension funds shows that the total unfunded liabilities for public employee pensions supported by the taxes of Chicago residents reached $14,896 per capita for fiscal year 2010. That is up from $10,037 per capita in FY2008. Property taxes paid by Chicago residents (both owners and renters) support the four pension funds for City of Chicago employees as well as the pension funds for employees of the…
In 2011 the IIFS blog provided weekly context, information and perspective on key fiscal issues in the State of Illinois. Posts in 2011 focused on analysis of FY2012 Illinois budget negotiations, analysis of the ongoing Illinois pension crisis and timely research on other fiscal issues impacting the State of Illinois. The following is a selection of the year’s posts. Analysis of FY2012 Illinois Budget Negotiations The IIFS blog opened the year by examining the implications of a…
Last week marked the end of the budget season for the nine local governments monitored by the Civic Federation. These governments include: the City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, DuPage County, City of Chicago, Cook County, Chicago Transit Authority, Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and Chicago Park District. While each local government’s budget and fiscal health status was evaluated individually, there are…
This week marks the end of the Civic Federation's fiscal year 2012 local government budget analysis season. The nine local governments monitored by the Civic Federation include: City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, DuPage County, City of Chicago, Cook County, Chicago Transit Authority, Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and Chicago Park District. The most notable finding of the budget season was that six of the eight…
On October 4, 2011 the Civic Federation released an independent analysis of Chicago charter school finances. The 170-page report, which is the first of a two-part study supported by the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, examined the publicly available budgets and audited financial statements of all Chicago charter schools in operation during FY2007 and 2008, measured how well the schools performed against key standards of fiscal accountability and evaluated their revenues and…
This 170-page report is a comprehensive examination of Chicago charter school finances and financial performance in fiscal years 2007 and 2008. The primary purpose is to provide a first-ever financial analysis of Chicago’s charter schools. In addition, the report is a primer on charter schools, providing an overview of national charter school research, an outline of charter school funding models, a review of the legislative history of charter schools in Illinois and information about the…
