The Civic Federation’s position on the Cook County property tax system is the focus of this article. In the report, the Federation says the County’s property tax system is too complicated for average property owners to estimate their annual bills.
This article discusses the Civic Federation’s position on the Cook County property tax system, which says the County should make the system simpler and fairer.
This article explores the financial landscape that will confront the next mayor of the City of Chicago. The Civic Federation says that the City entered the current economic recession without an economic plan and that the next mayor will face major budget balancing challenges.
This report articulates the Civic Federation’s overall position on the Cook County property tax system. The report expresses the Federation’s vision for a better property tax system and serves as a framework against which proposals to change the Cook County property tax system may be evaluated. The report identifies positive and negative features of the current system as well as unintended consequences. It should be read in conjunction with four descriptive primers recently published by the…
(CHICAGO) The Civic Federation stakes out its comprehensive position on the Cook County property tax system in a new report released today. The goal of the report is not only to describe what a better property tax system might look like, but also to serve as a framework that will help government officials and residents evaluate proposals to change the property tax. Together with a series of four educational reports, the new position paper represents the Federation’s most recent thinking on how…
Although it does not receive as much attention as the Skyway and the metered parking system leases, the downtown public parking system lease was also a very significant privatization transaction. It was undertaken by the City of Chicago, which owned one parking garage in the system and also involved the Chicago Park District which owned the other three garages in the system. The downtown parking system’s four garages constitute the largest underground parking system in the United States.…
In this segment of the Eight Forty-Eight news program, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall discusses how a proposal to privatize City of Chicago lakefront festivals could help fill the City’s budget deficit.
This news segment discusses a recent report that describes the condition of Illinois’ finances as dire. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall assents with that assessment and adds that the State’s has few options to fix its fiscal troubles including major program cuts or reductions in pension contributions.
Despite initial results showing that the State of Illinois’ recent tax amnesty program brought in more than $500 million in delinquent tax revenues, a report from the legislature’s financial oversight commission questions how much new General Funds revenue is actually included in the total funds received. The General Assembly approved the tax amnesty program to help boost revenues as part of the FY2011 enacted budget. The legislation allowed delinquent taxes owed to the State from periods…
Today the Civic Federation released its analysis of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s FY2011 tentative budget. The Civic Federation supports the nearly $1.0 billion budget proposal, which represents a $681.1 million, or 41.1% decrease over final FY2010 appropriations. The large reduction in appropriations reflects the variance that often occurs between budget years for MWRD, due in part to changes in number and scale of capital projects and the timing of funds required to complete…
