This article details some of the Chicago Park District’s upcoming reconstruction and capital investment projects. The Civic Federation points out that because the District does not issue a detailed project priority list and construction schedule, citizens and park visitors may not have a clear understanding of the District’s improvement plans.
This article discusses the Civic Federation’s analysis and support of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s $1.7 billion FY2010 budget. The Federation is quoted saying it supports the District’s budget because of its move to institute pension reforms and long-term planning practices.
This article examines the possible reform of the Chicago Public School Board’s $24,000-a-year receipt-free expense accounts to include a new system that would require Board members to submit receipts for expenditures.
This news article reports on the approval of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago FY2010 operating budget. The article mentions the Civic Federation’s support for the budget.
The redesign of the Civic Federation website in July has provided the public, government officials, and the media better access to the Federation’s analyses of government services in Illinois. The regularly-updated Civic Federation blog especially has provided a constant source of information on the issues that the Federation covers, including local budgets and pensions, taxes, privatization and asset leases, and commentary on events in the news. Blog posts about local government budgets…
Since its beginnings in July with the overhaul of the Civic Federation’s website, the IIFS blog has focused mostly on issues related to the Illinois budget, including Medicaid, debt, and the State pension system. These posts expand upon topics discussed in IIFS research publications and events in the news. Discussion about Illinois’ FY2010 budget and how the State was planning to bridge a two-year, $11.6 billion budget gap was the focal point for a number of blog posts. “New Borrowing Worsens…
All governments - whether states, cities or school districts - should place a portion of their general operating revenues in a general fund reserve or “rainy day” fund. These rainy day funds are savings accounts that governments can use to address revenue shortfalls or unanticipated expenditures and to help stabilize tax rates. The discussion here centers around reserves for general funds only, not revenues from long-term asset lease proceeds such as the City of Chicago lease of parking meters…
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2010 include public pension reform, requiring state government to develop and implement performance measurement and a capital improvement plan, the dissolving of the Illinois International Port District, creating a new governing board for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, reinstating means-tested transit discounts for seniors, requiring large counties to produce timely annual audits, enacting tax increment financing reporting reform,…
Governor Pat Quinn’s administration plans to begin enrolling elderly and disabled Medicaid recipients in Northeastern Illinois—excluding the City of Chicago—in health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in July of 2010. The pilot program, which is expected to cover about 40,000 people, represents the first time that Illinois’ Medicaid program has made enrollment in HMOs mandatory. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), the agency that administers the State’s Medicaid…
This article explores inefficiencies in the Cook County Health and Hospitals System and the effect that the partial rollback of the sales tax in Cook County may have on the System. The Civic Federation is quoted saying that the tax rollback does not necessarily mean that cuts must be made to the Hospital System to balance Cook County’s budget.
