A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that more information is needed to determine whether local school districts that receive federal stimulus money from the State of Illinois are using the funds promptly, as required by federal regulations. The report stems from the GAO’s effort to track uses of funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) in Illinois, 15 other states and the District of Columbia. Together, these governments account…
One of the Civic Federation’s ongoing concerns has been transparency in the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) by the City of Chicago and State of Illinois. Although the Civic Federation supports the use of TIF as municipal economic development tool, we believe that there is insufficient transparency in the availability and quality of TIF information provided to the public. The Civic Federation has published two pieces on TIF, an issue brief and a companion position statement about the use…
The Governor’s office recently published its first official document that included details of the revenues and expenditures approved by the General Assembly for FY2010 fiscal year. The Official Statement accompanying the sale of $1.25 billion in short term debt on August 20, 2009 includes new information on the State’s fiscal condition. It should eventually be available along with the other bond issuance documentation on the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget website. Until then it is…
Governor Pat Quinn has decided that the State of Illinois will shut down its troubled Howe Developmental Center in Tinley Park and move residents to other quarters by April 2010. The decision, announced on August 28, 2009, came four months after the General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability on April 28 backed a recommendation by the Illinois Department of Human Services that Howe be closed. The decision also came after a consultant hired by the Governor…
Starting today, increases in the taxation rates on soft drinks, personal grooming and hygiene products, and candy will take effect to help pay for improvements to Illinois’ infrastructure. The tax base of these three categories of merchandise will change from the low food and medicine rate of 1% to the higher general merchandise rate of 6.25%. Many municipalities add an extra tax to the base State rate. Please click here to find your local tax rate. The State sales tax on liquor will also…
On Monday, August 17, 2009, Governor Pat Quinn signed an amended version of Senate Bill 189 into law. Senate Bill 189 is now Public Act 096-0542 and will take effect January 1, 2010. The legislation amends various acts concerning governmental transparency including the Illinois Open Meetings Act, Freedom of Information Act, and Attorney General Act. The reforms will make it easier for citizens to obtain public documents from local governments. The following chart compares important…
Earlier this spring the Civic Federation opposed the $26 billion capital plan proposed by Governor Quinn because it was unaffordable over time and was not based on a capital improvement plan (CIP). The massive spending proposal was heavily debt funded, borrowing $10.6 billion for new projects (HB 312) and (HB 313). The Governor also planned to refinance the State’s existing $11.8 billion of capital purpose bonds scheduled to expire over the next 10 to 15 years in order to take advantage of…
More details are finally available on the FY2010 operating budget, and it would be difficult to describe it as balanced—even on paper. Depending on how you look at it, there is technically either a $157 million deficit or an $872 million surplus in the budget approved by the General Assembly and signed by Governor Pat Quinn on July 15, 2009. However, those numbers don’t take into account the $3.5 billion that the State plans to borrow to make its required pension payments. Nor do they reflect…
Hoping that Illinois lawmakers will agree to an income tax increase later this year, Governor Pat Quinn chose not to make the necessary cuts to work within the budget approved on July 15, 2009 by the General Assembly. At a press conference on July 31, the Governor said he had already trimmed more than $1 billion from the FY2010 budget that he initially proposed in March. However, Governor Quinn also said that the $26.1 billion appropriated General Funds budget that the legislature approved and…
A new study from the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York reports that total state tax collections for the first quarter of 2009 declined by 11.8% from the same quarter last year. This is the largest decline since 1963 and can be attributed in large part to the impact of the current recession. There were sharp reductions in collections for all three of the major state revenue sources: Sales Taxes declined by 8.3%; Personal Income Taxes declined by 17.6%; and…
