Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Civic Federation supports Mayor Lightfoot’s proposed FY2022 budget of $10.6 billion for all local funds (excluding grants and capital). The City of Chicago is in a much better financial position now than a year ago thanks to significant federal COVID-19 relief funding that has allowed the City to continue operating at full service levels, accommodate pay raises negotiated in…
The City of Chicago has released a FY2021-FY2025 Capital Improvement Program (CIP).[1] The purpose of a CIP is to establish priorities that balance capital needs with available resources, pair capital projects with funding sources, help ensure orderly repair and maintenance of capital assets and provide an estimate of the size and timing of future debt issuance. The first year of a CIP is the capital budget for that fiscal year. Developing a CIP is an important financial accountability…
In her FY2022 budget address, Mayor Lori Lightfoot highlighted the public and private economic development investments that have been made through the INVEST South/West initiative. For those unfamiliar with the program, this blog provides a quick summary of its goals and intended impact. INVEST South/West Initiative On October 21, 2019, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a new initiative called INVEST South/West, which is a community improvement project focused on developing commercial and…
The Chicago City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) on September 14, 2021. The FOP is the union representing the approximately 11,000 police officers for the City of Chicago, who make up the majority of approximately 13,000 Chicago Police Department employees. The new contract replaces the most recent collective bargaining agreement for police officers that expired on June 30, 2017. Contracts for the approximately 1,500 police…
On April 21, 2021, the City of Chicago adopted Substitute Ordinance 2020-5902, which requires the Department of Finance to publish monthly reports of Corporate Fund revenues. This amendment to the Municipal Code also requires the Department to coordinate with the City’s Office of Management and Budget to collect revenue data and produce a report comparing current revenues to budgeted revenues and the previous year revenues for the same period by category. The ordinance instructs the Department…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. MAJOR FINDINGS Effective property tax rates are a measure of property tax burden for homeowners and businesses. They translate the tax rates on property tax bills into rates that reflect the percentage of full market value that a property owed in taxes for a given year. This report, produced annually by the Civic Federation, estimates the tax year 2018 (taxes payable in 2019) effective rates for…
Click here to read this issue brief. SUMMARY This annual report lists and describes selected consumer taxes within the City of Chicago. For ease of use by non-specialists, the taxes in this report are grouped under the following categories: sales taxes, tobacco and nicotine-related taxes, beverage-related taxes, utility-related taxes, accommodations-related taxes, transportation-related taxes and other taxes. It is important to note for tax professionals that the groupings are not related to…
On January 21, 2021, the Civic Federation sent the following letter to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, urging him to veto House Bill 2451. The bill would expand a 3% non-compounded automatic annual increase to Chicago firefighters’ pensions to all Tier 1 members. The bill passed over the opposition of the leadership of the City of Chicago during the recent lame duck session of the Illinois General Assembly and was not tied to any assistance to help Chicago pay for this benefit enhancement,…
Annually the Civic Federation releases a report on consumer taxes in the City of Chicago. Consumer taxes are tied to the use or consumption of certain goods and services that can be charged directly to consumers through retail transactions or passed onto consumers by businesses or governments. Consumer taxes in Chicago are imposed at various levels of government including by the City of Chicago, Cook County, the State of Illinois and federal government. This blog highlights the changes that…
This blog post provides an update on the status of the City of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport $8.5 billion modernization project in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously depressed air traffic around the world, reducing airline and airport revenues and raising questions about whether the O’Hare modernization project would be delayed. However, Chicago continues to move forward on the plan with construction proceeding on new runways and expansion of the international terminal.[1] The…
