Cook County Preliminary Forecast Shows Substantial Operating Surplus for Year-End FY2023 and Moderate Budget Deficit for FY2024 On June 22, 2023, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle issued a preliminary budget forecast for fiscal year 2024. The fiscal year begins December 1, 2023, and ends November 30, 2024. The report provides end-of-year estimates for the current 2023 fiscal year and a forecast for the County’s operating funds in the upcoming 2024 fiscal year. This…
A report released by the Cook County Clerk last month found that revenue from TIF districts increased to a record $1.6 billion for FY2021, including approximately $1.2 billion from the City of Chicago and approximately $361 million from suburban Cook County. The $1.6 billion total accounts for a 7.4% increase from FY2020 and represents 9.4% of billed property taxes in the County. In total, nine TIF districts were closed in 2021 (most of which were in the suburbs) that had generated a collective…
The Civic Federation annually releases a report on consumer taxes in the City of Chicago, which will be released next month. Consumer taxes are tied to the use or consumption of certain goods and services that can be charged directly to consumers through retail transactions or passed on to consumers by businesses or governments. Consumer taxes in Chicago are imposed at various levels of government, including the City of Chicago, Cook County, the State of Illinois and the federal government.…
A report recently released by the Civic Federation highlights the current processes in Cook County bond court, including how often judges require payment of money as a condition of bail. The study, conducted in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Cook County, found that despite narratives to the contrary, cash bail is still widely used in Cook County. Another report recently released by the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice examined the bond court processes of six other Illinois…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read a press release for this analysis. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Civic Federation supports the Cook County FY2023 Executive Budget Recommendation of $8.75 billion because it reflects strong financial management and puts the County in a good position moving forward post-pandemic. The County’s FY2023 proposed budget includes a strong level of reserves and positive revenue projections, without any increases in taxes or fees. The FY2023 budget…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this report. Executive Summary Throughout the course of eight weeks during summer 2022, the Civic Federation, in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Cook County, observed felony bond court hearings in Cook County. The purpose of the project was to assess current proceedings and pretrial release decisions in felony bond hearings. This court watching project aimed to answer certain questions about…
Fund balance is a term used to describe the net assets of a governmental fund and serves as a measure of budgetary reserves.[1] In FY2021, the last year for which audited financial information is available, Cook County’s total unrestricted general fund balance was $869.1 million. This was a $276.0 million, or 46.5%, increase from the prior fiscal year. It represented 53.6% of general fund operating expenditures of $1.6 billion. Cook County’s General Fund consists of three accounts: Corporate,…
The Cook County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on September 22, 2022 to repeal the Wheel Tax as of June 30, 2023. The Wheel Tax is an annual license fee authorizing the use of any motor vehicle within the unincorporated areas of Cook County. Areas of Cook County that are unincorporated are not part of a municipality and therefore municipal services to those areas, such as policing and building and zoning, are provided by the County. The Wheel Tax is collected from residents of…
Cook County has received $1 billion in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) and released its latest 2022 performance report mandated by the United States Department of Treasury this past summer. This blog post is the second in a series looking at local governments’ plans to use these funds and what they’ve spent so far. To read more about how Chicago plans to use its distribution of SLFRF and to read more about ARPA’s general reporting…
The criminal justice system in Illinois is comprised of a multitude of different agencies and systems. This blog post will focus on the departments that make up the key criminal justice system agencies within Chicago and the State of Illinois, including agencies from three levels of government: municipal (City of Chicago), county (Cook County) and state (the State of Illinois). Each agency plays a role in the criminal legal system, although many criminal justice system agencies are…
