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 100 days update.INTRODUCTIONThe change in administration within the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County in December 2020 represented an opportunity for meaningful reform of an office that has been notorious for corruption, delays and substandard constituent service. Prior to the November 2020 General Election, Chicago Appleseed Center for…
On December 15, 2021, the Chicago City Council approved an ordinance (SO2021-3243) to regulate sports wagering in the City. The new legislation lifts a previous City ban on sports betting and allows for a 2% tax on gross sports betting revenues. It also allows for the opening of sports betting locations (also known as “sportsbooks”) in and around five of the City’s sports stadiums, among other locations. A landmark 2018 ruling by the United States Supreme Court struck down a federal law…
In less than a year from this writing, money will no longer be a factor in pretrial release decisions pertaining to defendants accused of committing crimes in Illinois. The elimination of cash bail was one of the major reforms in a criminal justice omnibus bill signed into law by Governor Pritzker in February 2021, and will take effect on January 1, 2023. This change in policy and practice represents a historic and fundamental shift in the pretrial release system in Illinois. Instead of setting…
The following are summaries of the five most-read posts presented on the Civic Federation’s blog in 2021, listed here in chronological order. The posts examine issues related to taxes, pensions and public safety. Consumer Taxes in Chicago: Increases and Updates for 2021 January 11, 2021 Annually the Civic Federation releases a report on consumer taxes in the City of Chicago. Consumer taxes are tied to the use or consumption of certain goods and services that can be charged directly to consumers…
The Chicago City Council approved the City’s annual budget for FY2022 (which aligns with the 2022 calendar year) on October 27. The Civic Federation supported the City’s FY2022 budget totaling $10.6 billion in an analysis of the budget proposal released earlier this fall. This blog post takes a closer look at spending in the area of public safety within the City’s budget. Public Safety offices in City of Chicago government include the following: Police Department; Fire Department; Office of…
In an analysis of Cook County’s FY2022 budget proposal released in November, the Civic Federation supported the Cook County budget proposal of $8.0 billion. This blog post takes a closer look at public safety spending in the County’s budget by examining five of the five key County criminal justice stakeholder offices—the Sheriff, Chief Judge, Clerk of the Circuit Court, State’s Attorney and Public Defender. Public Safety makes up the second largest area of spending in the Cook County budget…
The Civic Federation is pleased to announce that Secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) GRACE B. HOU is the recipient of the 30th Annual Motorola Solutions Foundation Excellence in Public Service Award, presented and administered by the Civic Federation. The Excellence in Public Service Award is an annual recognition of a non-elected government official who has had an extraordinary impact on the quality of state or local government services in Illinois.…
In a report released last week, the Civic Federation and the Illinois Supreme Court presented a first-of-its-kind statewide analysis of the total amount of bond payments collected in criminal cases and how those dollars are distributed at the conclusion of a criminal case. Beginning January 1, 2023, judges may no longer order someone accused of a crime to pay a monetary amount in order to secure their release from pretrial detention. In anticipation of this change in policy (enacted through…
The Chicago City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) on September 14, 2021. The FOP is the union representing the approximately 11,000 police officers for the City of Chicago, who make up the majority of approximately 13,000 Chicago Police Department employees. The new contract replaces the most recent collective bargaining agreement for police officers that expired on June 30, 2017. Contracts for the approximately 1,500 police…
The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC) and the Civic Federation originally released a report on behalf of the Illinois Supreme Court Pretrial Practices Implementation Task Force on September 13, 2021 that measured the amount of cash bond payments collected and disbursed by circuit court clerks throughout Illinois between 2016 and 2020. The report was revised in August 2022 with updated data. In addition to the revised report, the AOIC also received new data for the 2021…
