What local government purposes, services, or expenditures does your property tax dollar fund? Governments traditionally use property tax revenues to pay for a wide variety of expenditures, including employee salaries and pensions, debt service and administrative costs. But, there are significant differences among local governments regarding the use of these revenues. This blog post describes how property tax dollars were proposed to be spent in FY2015 by the three largest governments in…
The Civic Federation has long supported sensible legislation aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations in Illinois. The purpose of this blog is to summarize briefly consolidation legislation and initiatives that have been proposed since our last update on this topic in September 2014. Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates Task Force One of Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s first actions upon taking office was Executive Order 15-15, which…
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 12-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 County…
The Civic Federation’s previous blog examined the long-term debt of eight major local governments in northeastern Illinois. This blog explores the unfunded pension liabilities of ten pension funds sponsored by local governments in the Chicago area using a per capita indicator based on unfunded pension liabilities. Between FY2004 and FY2013, pension obligations per capita for Chicagoans’ increased by 199.4%, rising from $4,305 to $12,889. For Chicago residents, the pension obligations per capita…
The Civic Federation regularly analyzes and comments on the budgets and audited financial statements of eight major local governments in northeastern Illinois: 1. City of Chicago; 2. Chicago Public Schools (CPS); 3. Cook County; 4. Chicago Transit Authority (CTA); 5. Forest Preserve District of Cook County (FPDCC); 6. City Colleges of Chicago; 7. Chicago Park District; and 8. Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD). As part of these analyses, we examine trends in these governments’…
The Civic Federation’s recent report profiling six townships in Cook County with the largest unincorporated population examined issues related to annexing unincorporated areas. The report described the unincorporated areas and identified many of the barriers that municipalities might face if they were to annex the unincorporated areas adjacent to their borders. Based on interviews conducted with suburban municipal officials and other stakeholders, inadequate Cook County building code…
The Civic Federation and IIFS blogs have written extensively about reductions to assumed rates of return on investment by State and some local public pension plans over the last several years. These changes are part of a nationwide trend, influenced partly by the low interest rate environment and by a larger debate over whether pension plans should use a risk-free rate of return to discount liabilities or the expected rate of return on investment, as used by most public pension plans. In…
Annexation is the extension of municipal boundaries into adjacent unincorporated areas and the corresponding expansion of city services to those newly incorporated areas. In Illinois, municipal governments have the authority to determine and expand their boundaries, subject to the provisions of the Illinois Municipal Code. In a recent report, the Civic Federation began to identify reasons why Cook County’s unincorporated areas have not been incorporated into surrounding municipalities. The…
The following posts were among the most highly read on the Civic Federation blog in 2014 and represent some of the most closely followed local government issues this year: Illinois General Assembly Passes Pension Reforms for Chicago April 16, 2014 This blog discussed Senate Bill 1922, which was approved by the Illinois House and Senate on April 8, 2014. The bill contained benefit reforms and funding increases intended to stabilize the financial condition of the City of Chicago’s Municipal and…
Cook County’s unincorporated areas account for 125.8 square miles, or 13.1% of the County’s total land area. (Of that land area, 60.26% is located within a forest preserve.) Residents of these areas rely on the County to provide municipal services such as law enforcement, building and zoning, and liquor control at a cost to the County of $37.2 million each year. A recent Civic Federation report profiles selected unincorporated areas. While their land area is not large, unincorporated…
