Short-term or current liabilities are financial obligations that must be satisfied within one year. They can include short-term debt, accounts payable, accrued payroll and other current liabilities. This blog post presents five-year trends for: 1) total short-term liabilities in the Governmental Funds, and 2) short-term liabilities as a percentage of operating revenues for the three largest local governments the Civic Federation regularly monitors and evaluates: the City of Chicago, Cook…
The following are the five most read posts presented by the Civic Federation blog in 2015. These posts examine a number of closely followed local government issues, ranging from City and County taxes to Chicago pension debt. Where Do Your Property Taxes Go? April 7, 2015 This blog post outlines how property taxes are distributed by describing how property tax dollars were proposed to be spent in FY2015 by the three largest governments in northeastern Illinois: the City of Chicago,…
FY2016 Budget Season Summary December 3, 2015 marked the end of the budget season for the eight local governments monitored by the Civic Federation. These governments include: the City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, 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. Four of the seven governments that levy property taxes held their levies relatively…
This annual report compares estimated effective property tax rates in the six-county region of northeastern Illinois between 2004 and 2013, the last year for which data are available. Among the 12 selected Cook County communities that the Civic Federation analyzed, Harvey had the highest effective tax rate for residential properties at 8.08% in tax year 2013, and Chicago had the lowest residential rate in Cook County at 1.66% and the second-lowest of all 29 communities included in the…
This report provides estimates of the total market value of real property in Cook County from 2004-2013 and shows how property value is spread among the City of Chicago, the northern and the southern suburbs. The full market value of real estate in Cook County was approximately $459.9 billion in tax assessment year 2013. This represents an increase of $45.5 billion or 11.0% from the 2012 estimated full value. The 2013 estimates represent the first time since 2006 that real estate values in…
UPDATE: On Monday, November 9, 2015, Cook County Board President Preckwinkle called a special meeting of the Board of Commissioners to address the Hotel Accommodations Tax. On Friday November 6, 2015, the Civic Federation discussed a Hotel Tax based on net receipts; however, the ordinance introduced to the Board indicates that the 1.0% tax will be on gross receipts which will change the effective tax rates discussed previously and are shown in the table below. Because four levels of government…
The Civic Federation cannot support Cook County’s proposed FY2016 budget of $4.5 billion because it is based on a one percentage point increase in the County’s sales tax approved on July 15, 2015 that will make the City of Chicago an outlier compared to other major urban centers with a composite rate of 10.25%. While the Federation supports the County’s efforts to increase pension funding, the magnitude of the sales tax increase is not reasonable given the other available revenue and…
On September 9, 2015, the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved the preliminary budget of the County’s public health system for the fiscal year that begins on December 1, 2015 and runs through November 30, 2016. The vote cleared the way for inclusion of the preliminary budget in the County Board President’s overall FY2016 budget recommendation, which is scheduled to be announced in October. In FY2016 the County is expected to reduce its tax support for the Cook County Health and…
The Illinois Department of Revenue announced earlier this summer that the final equalization factor for the Cook County 2014 property assessment year (taxes payable in 2015) is 2.7253. The 2014 final equalization factor of 2.7253 is greater than the final 2013 equalization factor of 2.6922. This does not mean that property taxes will go up or down. It means that, overall, the weighted average level of assessment[1] in Cook County for all types of property averaged over the past three years has…
On July 15, 2015, the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted 9-7 to once again increase the county sales tax by one percentage point, taking effect on January 1, 2016. Once in place for one full year, Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office projects that the tax hike will generate nearly $474 million in revenues and proposed that revenues be dedicated to start to pay down the County’s $6.5 billion in pension obligations and to fund infrastructure projects. The County’s portion of the sales…
