The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2009 include public pension reform, the dissolving of the Illinois International Port District, creating a new governing board for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, requiring all counties to hold budget hearings, requiring large counties to produce timely annual audits, enacting tax increment financing reporting reform, requiring school financial management accountability reforms, and authorizing state and local government entities to…
The Civic Federation supports the FY2009 City of Chicago budget of $5.97 billion because it does not rely on raising property tax and begins the painful yet necessary step of reducing payroll by 2,618 full-time equivalent positions to balance the budget. The Federation warns that steps must be taken to reduce the mounting liabilities of the City's pension funds.
The Civic Federation does not support the City Colleges' proposed FY2009 budget because it is unsustainable and relies almost exclusively on revenue enhancements, such as a maximum property tax increase, rather than focusing on ways to reduce costs. The Federation commends the District for beginning to implement important planning procedures, but urges it to use these tools to control spending and make targeted cuts in non-essential programming.
This report calls for the dissolution of the Illinois International Port District and the transfer of its operations to the City of Chicago. It finds that the District has shifted its primary focus from port operations to the management of a golf course. Even though the golf course brings in over half the District's annual revenue, the Civic Federation found no evidence that those revenues have been reinvested to improve port facilities or promote commerce.
This brief provides a compilation of selected consumer taxes, including rates and descriptions, in place in the City of Chicago as of October 4, 2007. It includes such taxes as the sales tax, gas tax, amusement tax, lease tax, liquor tax, restaurant tax, soft drink tax, wheel tax, and parking tax.
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2008 include public pension reform, tax increment financing disclosure, creation of a separate board of commissioners for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, school financial management accountability reforms, property tax assessment appeal reforms, timely county audits, and retiree health care trust fund authorization.
This report provides a trend analysis of indicators that measure the financial health and performance of ten major local government pension funds from 1997 to 2006. It finds a combined 18.3 billion dollars in unfunded liabilities for the ten funds, and makes numerous recommendations on legislative actions that should be taken to slow the downward spiral of pension underfunding.
The Civic Federation supports Tax Increment Financing as an economic development tool but recommends that there be much greater transparency in the quantity and quality of TIF information provided to the public. The Federation recommends including full financial information about TIF in all municipal budgets, making TIF information easily accessible on the internet, and undertaking a comprehensive review of each TIF district every ten years. This position statement is a companion report to…
This report explains the impact of TIF on taxpayers and local governments in Illinois. It also reviews the TIF designation process, recent empirical research on TIF, and provides detailed information on selected City of Chicago TIF Districts. It is a companion report to the Civic Federation Position Statement on TIF.
The Civic Federation opposes the City of Chicago's proposed $5.9 billion budget. The budget proposes an additional $266.6 million in new spending and includes a $108.0 million property tax increase, the largest in recent Chicago history. We believe that the 15.1% property tax increase should be rejected and the city should maintain its self-imposed property tax cap. We believe that the city has not made a compelling case for why libraries--the intended beneficiaries of the property tax increase…
