Click here to read the Civic Federation’s February 2014 updated list of selected consumer taxes in the City of Chicago. In December of 2009, the Civic Federation released an update of its issue brief on Selected Consumer Taxes in the City of Chicago. The document includes descriptions of selected consumer taxes, recent changes in tax rates and explanations of how revenue from these taxes is distributed among local governments in Chicago. The report highlights changes in taxation that occurred…
The redesign of the Civic Federation website in July has provided the public, government officials, and the media better access to the Federation’s analyses of government services in Illinois. The regularly-updated Civic Federation blog especially has provided a constant source of information on the issues that the Federation covers, including local budgets and pensions, taxes, privatization and asset leases, and commentary on events in the news. Blog posts about local government budgets…
This brief provides an updated compilation of selected consumer taxes, including rates and descriptions, in effect in the City of Chicago on December 1, 2009. It includes such taxes as the sales tax, gas tax, amusement tax, lease tax, hotel tax, liquor tax, restaurant tax, soft drink tax, wheel tax, and parking tax.
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2010 include public pension reform, requiring state government to develop and implement performance measurement and a capital improvement plan, the dissolving of the Illinois International Port District, creating a new governing board for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, reinstating means-tested transit discounts for seniors, requiring large counties to produce timely annual audits, enacting tax increment financing reporting reform,…
The Civic Federation commends the Cook County Board for voting 12-5 to roll back half of last year’s one percentage point sales tax hike and for overriding President Todd Stroger’s veto. The Federation considers this a victory for overburdened County taxpayers and for the County businesses that have suffered as a result of the tax. The Civic Federation has long opposed the unnecessary sales tax increase and has repeatedly called for its repeal, most recently in our analysis of…
The purpose of this issue brief is to provide summary information on property tax appeals in Cook County, Illinois. It describes the assessment appeal process at the Cook County Assessor’s Office and the Cook County Board of Review and includes data on the number and type of real estate parcels filing appeals at those offices from 2000 to 2008. It also describes avenues to appeal property assessments at the Property Tax Appeal Board or in the court system. Read the press release for this…
Last week Cook County released its FY2010 budget and will conclude its public hearing schedule nine business days after the budget’s release. At a minimum, the public should be afforded a review period of ten working days before public testimony is heard, not as a conclusion to the hearing schedule. The County’s accelerated public hearings schedule does not allow members of the public a reasonable amount of time to review the budget document and plan to attend one of the public hearings. The…
The Civic Federation opposes Cook County’s $3.0 billion FY2010 operating budget because it is predicated on the continuation of an unnecessary one percentage point sales tax increase and provides limited evidence of cost-saving efficiencies or structural reforms. In contrast, the Cook County Health and Hospital System is proposing efficiencies and eliminating vacant and non-front line positions. In the report the Federation calls on the Cook County Board of Commissioners to make the independent…
The property tax rates released yesterday by the Cook County Clerk show that the composite tax rates in the City of Chicago and many municipalities declined slightly from the previous year. However, many property owners will still see higher property tax bills arriving in the mail soon. The Cook County property tax system is so complex that it is impossible to predict exactly how the new tax rates will affect an individual property owner’s bill. However, there are a few features of tax year…
The Illinois House of Representatives voted on October 14, 2009 to reduce the number of votes required to override a veto by the Cook County Board President from an extraordinary four-fifths—or 14 of 17 commissioners—to three-fifths or 11. House Bill 4625, introduced by Representative Mark Walker, was approved 98-18-2 yesterday and would be effective immediately if it becomes law. The Illinois Senate unanimously approved a different veto override measure (SB1868, sponsored by Senator Dan…
