The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (Lincoln Institute) released last week an evaluation of common property tax relief programs used across the United States. The report also makes recommendations for the best practices in promoting a property tax system that is fair and also retains the ability to provide sustainable revenue. The Civic Federation has long supported some of the reforms recommended in the report, such as circuit breakers. For Illinois policymakers, we believe the report is an…
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 FY2022 Executive Budget Recommendation of $8.04 billion. The County is in a good financial position to recover from the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The County has built up reserves, maintained manageable long-term debt levels, and conducted long-term forecasting, which has helped plan for budget gaps over time. The County’s…
Short-term or current liabilities are financial obligations that must be satisfied within one year. These include short-term notes, accounts payable, amounts due to other funds, accrued payroll and other current liabilities. Rating agencies, financial analysts and the Civic Federation regularly track trends in short-term liabilities to help evaluate the overall fiscal health of governments. This blog post reviews Cook County short-term liability trends in the Governmental Funds for the five-…
On June 24, 2021, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle issued a preliminary budget forecast for fiscal year 2022. The fiscal year begins December 1, 2021 and ends November 30, 2022. The report provides end-of-year estimates for the current 2021 fiscal year and a forecast for the upcoming 2022 fiscal year in the County’s operating funds. The operating funds include the General Fund, which accounts for administrative and public safety operations, and Health Fund, which accounts for the…
UPDATE: READ THE ONE YEAR PROGRESS REPORT HERE Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release. Click here to read the 2020 recommendations. Click here to read the first year in review. INTRODUCTION In September 2020, the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, Chicago Council of Lawyers and the Civic Federation released New Directions for the Office of the Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court: Recommendations for Planning and Transitioning to…
Cook County has accounted for all $429 million in Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) funding the County received through the federal CARES Act in 2020, according to a report presented by Cook County finance officials to the Cook County Board of Commissioners in January. The County received relief funds from the U.S. Treasury in April 2020 that could be used to cover eligible COVID-19-related expenses, which had to be spent by the end of the year in order to keep the full funding amount. Cook County…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. MAJOR FINDINGS Effective property tax rates are a measure of property tax burden for homeowners and businesses. They translate the tax rates on property tax bills into rates that reflect the percentage of full market value that a property owed in taxes for a given year. This report, produced annually by the Civic Federation, estimates the tax year 2018 (taxes payable in 2019) effective rates for…
In January 2021, Cook County issued $499.8 million in general obligation and revenue bonds. A total of $330.5 million was issued by the County in Series 2021A general obligation refunding bonds. These bonds will be used to refund the County’s outstanding Series 2010A and 2010G bonds [1]. The bonds being retired had an average interest rate of 5.2%, while the refunding bonds will carry a blended interest cost of 1.32%. The transaction will save Cook County approximately $104.1 million in…
Recently, Cook County, the State of Illinois and other jurisdictions across the U.S. have begun to implement policy changes to reduce reliance on monetary bail and release more individuals while awaiting trial. These changes come amid a national push to make the criminal justice system more fair and reduce the number of criminal defendants held in jail pretrial based on their inability to pay bail. The federal system in Washington, D.C. eliminated cash bail in the 1990s. In the move away from a…
Despite large revenue losses associated with the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, Cook County’s preliminary 2020 budget results for the fiscal year that ended on November 30, 2020 show a positive year-end balance. Based on the monthly report provided by the Cook County Bureau of Finance to the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the County expects to end the year with a positive balance of $154.7 million in the General Fund and $259.2 million in the Health Fund on a budgetary basis. This…
