This week the Civic Federation released its annual Effective Property Tax Rates report. The report highlights the fact that in 2007 property tax burdens for many Northeastern Illinois communities rose, while property tax rates in Chicago are still among the lowest in the area. Effective property tax rates is an average calculation that offers a method of comparing residents’ property tax burdens across municipalities and counties. For example, this report shows that in 2007 the average…
This report compares effective property tax rates in selected communities around metropolitan Chicago and finds that many communities experienced a slight increase in their property tax burden in 2007. However, Chicago continues to have one of the lowest property tax burdens for residential, commercial, and industrial properties in the region. Click here to read the press release.
The Civic Federation supports Illinois State Senator Dan Kotowski's legislation to reduce the number of votes necessary to override a veto by the Cook County Board President from four-fifths to three-fifths of commissioners in order to create a more level playing field between the executive and legislative branches of Cook County government.
At a press conference on September 8, 2009, Illinois State Senator Dan Kotowski and Illinois State Representative Julie Hamos announced a renewed effort to lower the number of votes required to overturn a veto by the Cook County Board President. The legislators were joined by Civic Federation President Laurence Msall, who spoke about the Federation’s long opposition to the supermajority requirement. Due to the failure of state legislation to keep up with changes to the structure of the Cook…
A few local governments in Cook County have recently begun utilizing Twitter, a free micro-blogging website, in order to provide quick updates on relevant developments and information about governmental services. These local governments’ Twitter accounts supplement their websites by providing additional content and by aggregating information displayed on various pages of the government’s website or websites. Although Twitter updates are short (they cannot exceed 140 characters), they can…
On July 21, 2009 the Finance Committee of the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to roll back the county’s sales tax rate from 1.75% to 1.25%. If adopted, the amendment would take effect January 1, 2010 and lower the aggregate sales tax rate in the City of Chicago to 9.75%. Aggregate sales tax rates in Suburban Cook County would range between 8.5% and 9.75%, depending on the municipality. The vote came after a discussion of the county’s Revenue Report, which revealed that as of…
This report provides a trend analysis of indicators that measure the financial health and performance of ten major local government pension funds from 1998 to 2007, the most recent year for which audited data are available. It finds that unfunded liabilities for the ten funds climbed even during years of good investment returns, increasing from $4.8 to $17.1 billion in ten years, and makes numerous recommendations on legislative actions that should be taken to slow the downward spiral of…
This report reviews best practices in the composition of public pension boards of trustees nationwide, and makes recommendations on improvements to pension boards in Illinois.
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2009 include public pension reform, the dissolving of the Illinois International Port District, creating a new governing board for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, requiring all counties to hold budget hearings, requiring large counties to produce timely annual audits, enacting tax increment financing reporting reform, requiring school financial management accountability reforms, and authorizing state and local government entities to…
The Civic Federation urges Cook County Commissioners to reject the proposed $2.9 billion FY2009 County operating budget, which is based on $364.0 million in ill-considered borrowing for operational expenses.
