The Illinois Department of Revenue announced today that the final equalization factor for the Cook County 2010 property assessment year (taxes payable in 2011) is 3.3000. The final equalization factor was calculated after the Cook County Board of Review finished hearing appeals and certified the final assessments for 2010. The tentative equalization factor of 3.1773, which reflected the Cook County Assessor’s final assessments before Board of Review appeals, was announced on June 16, 2011…
In many of its past reports, the Civic Federation has recommended that local governments integrate performance management into their budgeting process and make that information public. In the Cook County Modernization Report released last fall, the Civic Federation recommended that the County make full implementation of performance-based budgeting a priority. The data should be a mix of qualitative and quantitative input, output, efficiency and outcome data. Performance measures should relate…
Since Cook County passed its FY2011 budget in February 2011, it has been evident that the County’s public health system would face major hurdles in achieving the budget goals. The size of those hurdles became clearer on June 24, 2011 at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System. The Health System is expected to be slightly under budget on expenses for FY2011, which ends on November 30, 2011. However, net revenues are currently projected at $80 million to…
The Illinois Department of Revenue has announced that the tentative equalization factor for the Cook County 2010 property assessment year (taxes payable in 2011) is 3.1773. The final equalization factor cannot be calculated until the Cook County Board of Review has finished hearing appeals and has certified the final assessments for 2010. That process may take several more weeks or months to complete. What is the equalization factor and why do we need it? Inter-county equalization (…
UPDATE: The proposal to allow the Blue Park Gun Club the use of Forest Preserve District property for its operations was withdrawn, after significant urging from the Friends of the Forest Preserve. Cook County Commissioner Joan Murphy, one of the sponsors of the resolution, withdrew the proposal when Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said she would not support the issue. Commissioner Murphy also indicated that the proposal lacked support from other commissioners. As discussed in this…
A key component of Cook County’s plan to remake its public health system was rejected by a State of Illinois board on May 10, 2011, adding to concerns that the County might have difficulties implementing its FY2011 budget. At a meeting in Joliet, the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board (Health Facilities Board) rejected by one vote the request to end inpatient and emergency room services at Oak Forest Hospital. The Cook County Health and Hospitals System wants to turn the Oak…
The Civic Federation sent the following letter to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board in support of a plan by the Cook County Health and Hospitals System to discontinue acute-care hospital services at Oak Forest Hospital in favor of expanded outpatient care. As discussed previously on this blog, the Review Board rejected the plan by a vote of 3 to 2 on March 21, 2011. Under state law, five affirmative votes are required for passage. Currently only six members serve on the…
The three largest municipal governments analyzed by the Civic Federation are the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the City of Chicago and Cook County. All three began their FY2011 budget processes projecting large budget shortfalls: CPS projected a gap of $370 million, the City of Chicago projected a gap of $655 million and Cook County projected a gap of $487 million.[1] These budget shortfalls were primarily the result of existing structural imbalances that were exacerbated by declines in…
The Civic Federation analyzes the budgets of nine Chicago area local governments. One important indicator that the Federation utilizes to assess the financial health of these municipalities is their fund balance level. In particular, we examine the balance within the general fund that does not have any external legal restriction, called the unrestricted fund balance. Fund balance differs from net assets typically reported by business enterprises in that it includes only a subset of assets and…
Cook County plans to reduce financial assistance to its Health and Hospitals System by nearly 33% this year, from $411.5 million in FY2010 to $276.3 million in FY2011. The County will face major challenges related to the Health System’s budget and Medicaid revenues. The Health System’s subsidy from the County consists mainly of tax revenues used to bridge the gap between the System’s operating revenues and expenditures. The System’s operating revenues come mostly from Medicaid, the federal-…
