The Civic Federation opposes the Cook County FY2009 proposed budget because it is built on an unstable foundation of $364.0 million in borrowed funds to pay for operating expenses less than a year after the County raised its sales tax by one percentage point. The report makes numerous recommendations for cost reductions, management reforms, and pension reforms.
This report compares property tax rates in selected communities around metropolitan Chicago, and finds that effective rates for commercial property in Chicago declined by nearly 60 percent between tax years 1999 and 2006.
The Civic Federation supports the proposal to to amend the Cook County Classification Ordinance in order to change the levels of assessment to 10% for residential, vacant, and apartment properties, and 25% for commercial, industrial, and non-profit properties. The Federation believes this will bring greater transparency to the property tax system but have little or no effect on actual assessments.
This report provides estimates of the total market value of real property in Cook County from 1997-2006 and shows how property value is spread among the City of Chicago, the northern and the southern suburbs. From 1997-2006, the value of Cook County real estate more than doubled, from $271 billion to $666 billion. The full value of Chicago real estate now represents 49.5% of Cook County's total value.
This joint report by the Civic Federation and Friends of the Forest Preserves calls for the creation of an independent board of commissioners for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. The report finds that the current arrangement by which the Cook County Board of Commissioners also serves as the governing board for the Forest Preserve District has resulted in conflicts of interest and neglect of the preserves.
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2008 include public pension reform, tax increment financing disclosure, creation of a separate board of commissioners for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, school financial management accountability reforms, property tax assessment appeal reforms, timely county audits, and retiree health care trust fund authorization.
This report provides a trend analysis of indicators that measure the financial health and performance of ten major local government pension funds from 1997 to 2006. It finds a combined 18.3 billion dollars in unfunded liabilities for the ten funds, and makes numerous recommendations on legislative actions that should be taken to slow the downward spiral of pension underfunding.
The Civic Federation supports the work of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services Review Committee and the Task Force on Independent Governance of the Cook County Bureau of Health on establishing an independent governing board for the Cook County Bureau of Health Services. The Federation offers a number of specific recommendations regarding the role and responsibilities of an independent board.
The Civic Federation supports Tax Increment Financing as an economic development tool but recommends that there be much greater transparency in the quantity and quality of TIF information provided to the public. The Federation recommends including full financial information about TIF in all municipal budgets, making TIF information easily accessible on the internet, and undertaking a comprehensive review of each TIF district every ten years. This position statement is a companion report to…
This report explains the impact of TIF on taxpayers and local governments in Illinois. It also reviews the TIF designation process, recent empirical research on TIF, and provides detailed information on selected City of Chicago TIF Districts. It is a companion report to the Civic Federation Position Statement on TIF.
