Roughly a month ago, on July 1, 2010, Governor Pat Quinn announced that he planned to cut $1.1 billion from the $26.0 billion FY2011 State of Illinois budget previously approved by the General Assembly. At that time, the Governor did not say where $891 million of those spending cuts would be made. During the week of August 2, 2010, Governor Quinn revealed the specific reductions to agency budgets. As a result of the Governor’s actions, it is now possible to provide a more detailed comparison…
A tax increment financing (TIF) transparency bill (Public Act 096-1335) passed by the Illinois legislature in May and signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn on July 27 includes a number of long-standing Civic Federation recommendations detailed in the Federation’s 2007 TIF report: Each TIF will require a 10-year status report. The county or municipality that created the TIF would be required to publish a status report that includes detailed financial data. Public hearings on 10-year…
Despite a $2 billion drop in the State’s annual revenues in FY2010 , the General Assembly passed Governor Pat Quinn's proposal to provide a back-to-school sales tax holiday for Illinois consumers as part of the FY2011 budget. The State charges a composite rate of 6.25% on consumer purchases of most general merchandise from retailers in Illinois, but only 5% of that rate is the State’s share. The State also collects then passes along 1.0% for municipalities and .25% for county governments. The…
Almost immediately after the Illinois General Assembly approved an unbalanced budget for FY2011, two of the three major rating agencies downgraded the state’s debt ratings. It was the fifth time in the last 18 months that Illinois has seen its ratings reduced by Fitch and the third reduction from Moody’s. Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has also reduced the State’s rating three times in the past 18 months but has not taken further action since January. All three agencies still consider Illinois…
The Illinois Department of Revenue has announced that the tentative equalization factor for the Cook County 2009 property assessment year (taxes payable in late 2010) is 3.1062. The final equalization factor cannot be calculated until the Cook County Board of Review has finished hearing appeals and has certified the final assessments for 2009. That process may take several more weeks or months to complete. What is the equalization factor and why do we need it? Inter-county…
On July 1, 2010—the first day of the State of Illinois’ FY2011 fiscal year—Governor Pat Quinn said that his budget for the new year will contain major spending cuts. However, most of the reductions have yet to be determined and the FY2011 budget continues to be unbalanced, with an expected operating deficit of $5.9 billion. The Governor announced at a press conference that his FY2011 General Funds budget will total $24.9 billion. That total is approximately $1.1 billion below the $26 billion…
Last month the State of Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) released a report entitled “Sales Tax in Illinois.". According to the report, in FY2009 general revenue fund sales tax collections totaled $6.77 billion, down 6.1% from $7.21 billion in the prior fiscal year. It is estimated that general revenue fund sales tax collections will continue to decline in FY2010, falling 8.5% from the FY2009 level.[1] In its report COGFA highlights the…
The State of Illinois has yet to determine how it will handle its required pension contributions for FY2011. However, a recent analysis by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) estimates that skipping the $3.5 billion payment entirely would cost the State $12.5 billion in additional contributions. COGFA’s actuaries forecasted how much the State would be required to contribute to its five retirement systems between FY2012 and FY2045 with and without a pension…
Civic Federation Position Statement on School Vouchers June 17, 2010 The Civic Federation supports the use of vouchers to provide students in low-performing public schools with the opportunity to attend private schools. We view charter schools and a voucher system as important initiatives for public education because they provide school choice for parents and students and bring innovation to the state’s education system. The Civic Federation believes that a voucher system would be an affordable…
The State of Illinois is not the only cash-strapped state that shied away from major tax increases to improve its financial condition in FY2011. According to Stateline.org, most states avoided raising significant revenue and instead patched together FY2011 budgets by finding a few new items to tax, curtailing spending and relying on federal stimulus dollars. So far only Kansas and Arizona have raised their sales tax rates this year, according to Stateline, a daily online publication of the Pew…
