Since opening in September 2023, Chicago’s temporary casino has consistently underperformed revenue expectations. Presented as a potential windfall to support Chicago’s underfunded police and fire pensions, every month since its opening, the City has reported revenues far short of initial projections. These initial projections were revised significantly downward in each subsequent year’s budget, and revenues frequently fail to meet even the reduced expectations. Despite this low performance to…
Illinois’ Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) was enacted in the 1990s to slow the rate of growth of local property taxes by capping the annual increases in property tax extensions for non-home rule governments, such as school districts and park districts, to the lesser of 5% or the rate of inflation. In reality, property taxes have grown much faster than inflation, and PTELL has not achieved its intended purpose of limiting property tax growth. This joint report from the Civic…
With the City of Chicago (Chicago or the ‘City’) facing a nearly $1.2 billion deficit heading into the 2026 fiscal year, potential spending reductions are and should be a top priority for stakeholders in the budget process. In May 2025, the City commissioned the consulting group EY – formerly known as Ernst & Young – to create a report on possible efficiencies the City could implement in future budgets. Many require few to no layoffs or service reductions. Others require additional input…
Most of the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD, or the ‘Department’) spending (96.5%) is budgeted through the City’s Corporate Fund, or general operating fund. This analysis provides a snapshot of CPD spending within the Corporate Fund since 2019.CPD expenditures within the Corporate Fund are proposed to be $1.96 billion in FY2026. The Police Department’s budgeted spending has increased by 26.5% between the 2019 adopted budget and the 2026 proposed budget, at an average annualized growth rate of…
In 2019, the City of Chicago (Chicago or the ‘City’) had a budget of $8.9 billion, excluding grants from the State of Illinois (Illinois or the ‘State’) and the Federal government. By 2025, expenditures had grown to $12.4 billion—a 40% increase. Using 2019 as a baseline, this report explains how much the Chicago budget has grown compared to pre-pandemic levels of spending and what areas of the budget are driving that growth.
The introduction of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed FY2026 budget on October 16 provides Chicagoans with insight into how this administration proposes to address a $1.2 billion budget deficit and what they aim to prioritize in the coming year. Excluding grant funds, the proposed budget is 2.7% higher than the previous year, despite a significant deficit necessitating unprecedented revenue measures. The budget proposes closing the deficit by substantially increasing the cloud computing…
Chicago enters the FY2026 budget season at a pivotal moment. If it feels like we have been here before, it is because we have for as long as can be remembered. Ever-mounting taxes and fees, persistent structural budget gaps, high long-term debt, underfunded pensions, and debates over government spending are long-held staples of local political discourse. Despite occasional wins, the City’s fiscal situation remains largely unchanged, and new financial burdens further threaten an already fragile…
Chicago is the only major city in the United States that operates without a constitution, which, for cities, is referred to as a charter. This absence is not just an anomaly; it fundamentally impacts every aspect of our City’s processes. Without a charter, Chicago’s governance rests on a patchwork of ordinances and informal traditions that can change with each administration. This has created a system with no clear separation of powers, limited resources for the City Council to serve as a co-…
More than 5.5 million residents in northeastern Illinois rely on Lake Michigan for their drinking water needs. Yet, despite its undeniable importance, the system designed to manage this critical resource is a patchwork of competing interests and fragmented governance, resulting in inefficient delivery of this basic resource. This report explores the challenges and opportunities in our current system, arguing that northeastern Illinois’ water governance system should not continue as it is. The…
The Local Pension Dashboard is intended for use as a resource and educational tool to increase the accessibility of local pension fund data. The dashboard reports metrics for the ten major local pension funds within the City of Chicago and Cook County, Illinois, with data from 1996 to 2024 (2024 CTA data is not included as that data has not been released as of publication). Using this tool, dashboard users can create custom visualizations and comparisons of up to ten funds.
