Major Tax Increase, Cuts to Appropriations Did Not Fix State’s Finances (CHICAGO) The Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation released its analysis of the enacted FY2012 State budget today. The report found that the spending plan will increase Illinois’ total general operating deficit to $5.0 billion by June 2012. The shortfall would be even larger if the State had not significantly underfunded Medicaid costs and business tax refunds. The full 56-page report is…
As the State of Illinois enters the third year of its Illinois Jobs Now! capital program, the Governor and General Assembly enacted a capital budget for FY2012 with a considerable increase in spending on new projects. The State’s annual capital budget, which is proposed and approved separately from the operating budget, increased by $2.2 billion for FY2012. This marks the first expansion of the current ongoing capital spending program since its inception in FY2010. The capital budget also…
The Illinois General Assembly reconvened on June 22, 2011 for an extra day of the spring session to sort out several issues that were not addressed three weeks ago when the legislature adjourned after approving a $33.2 billion budget. Both the House and the Senate took action to reauthorize the State’s ongoing $31-billion capital program, which was first enacted in FY2010. As previously discussed here, the original capital reauthorization bill did not pass the House after the Senate added an…
A critical fiscal process for state and local governments is the planning and funding of capital projects. The literature on best practices for capital budgeting is not as robust as for operating budgets and there is significant variety in the practices of governments. There are a number of factors that add complexity to capital planning, including the multi-year nature of capital projects, the difficulty of accurately estimating project costs and that it is common for the funding of capital…
This article discusses some of the actions made by the State of Illinois General Assembly during the spring legislative session. The article cites Civic Federation data that showed debt dedicated to the State's pension system has exceeded capital debt.
Earlier this week the Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation released its analysis of Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed FY2012 operating budget. The report found that the proposed FY2012 budget had a General Funds operating shortfall of $2.4 billion due to increased spending and overestimated revenues. The Civic Federation opposed the Governor’s proposed budget due to these findings and other issues it opposed in the budget including the reliance on a very expensive…
This editorial discusses findings in the Civic Federation’s analysis of the Governor Quinn’s FY2012 budget proposal for the State of Illinois.
This article discusses the Civic Federation’s analysis of the State of Illinois FY2012 proposed budget. It highlights the Federation’s reasons for rejecting the budget plan, which include a budget gap of $2.4 billion and a dependence on borrowing to pay overdue bills.
The State of Illinois’ largest area of capital investment, transportation projects, received a funding boost this week when the federal government announced additional grants to support high-speed rail projects in Illinois. The U.S. Department of Transportation notified Illinois in the past week that it would receive two additional grants for high-speed rail. On May 4, 2011, the State learned it would get another $186 million in funding to continue upgrading tracks to facilitate faster…
Mike McConnell interviews Civic Federation President Laurence Msall about the Federation’s analysis of the State of Illinois’ FY2012 budget proposal in this segment. Mr. Msall discusses the State’s spending plans and the pressure that the State’s backlog of unpaid bills has put on the State’s finances.
