(CHICAGO) In an analysis released today, the Civic Federation announced its support for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s proposed FY2018 Executive Budget Recommendation budget of $198.2 million. The Executive Budget Recommendation includes both operating and capital expenditures. The full analysis is available here. As detailed in the report, the District will fund land restoration entirely through the operating budget beginning this year, rather than using reserves. This move…
Click here to read the full report. The Civic Federation supports the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s proposed FY2018 budget of $198.2 million because it employs reasonable fiscal practices and focuses on the use of innovative measures such as cell tower placements and sponsorships to generate much-needed revenue and stabilize the Forest Preserves' financial position. As detailed in the report, the District's FY2018 budget includes reasonable fee increases necessary for the…
Click here to read this issue brief. With a projected $200 million loss in revenue for fiscal year 2018 due to the recent repeal of the sweetened beverage tax, the Cook County Board of Commissioners and County Agency officials now must identify ways to balance the budget without the expected funding. The Civic Federation encourages the County Board of Commissioners to approach the FY2018 budget with a long-term perspective. The County must not use this crisis as an excuse to use gimmicks and…
Following Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s FY2018 budget address, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall spoke with a pool of reporters on the City of Chicago’s finances. He said the Mayor’s budget is a reasonable plan that can move the City forward but warned that Chicago still has long-term financial challenges that must be addressed. ----- Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel unveils 2018 budget; Chicago ‘on firmer financial footing’ DNA Info: Progressives Take Aim At Budget Plan While Others Say…
When the Illinois General Assembly overrode Governor Rauner’s veto of the FY2018 budget package in July, it estimated that the enacted budget would have an operating surplus of about $360 million. Since the override, Governor Rauner has insisted that the legislature’s budget plan results in a deficit rather than a surplus. This week the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) released numbers supporting that assessment in an economic and fiscal policy report and accompanying five-…
For nearly two months, the fate of Illinois’ budget for the current fiscal year was in doubt because of Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto of a school funding bill. With compromise education funding legislation enacted on August 31, attention can now turn to the FY2018 budget itself and specifically on whether it is balanced. An operating budget is balanced if expenditures match projected revenues. On paper, the budget enacted by the General Assembly on July 7—in an override of another gubernatorial…
After several iterations and much disagreement, the State of Illinois now has a new statewide school funding formula. The Illinois General Assembly approved the new formula as Senate Bill 1947, House Floor Amendment 5 on August 29, with the Illinois House passing the bill Monday, August 28 and the Senate concurring the next day. The Governor signed the bill into law as Public Act 100-0465 on August 31, 2017. This historic new funding formula will help alleviate the ailing finances of the…
Seven weeks after the General Assembly enacted Illinois’ first budget in three years by overriding the Governor’s veto, the backlog of bills owed by the State still stood at $14.5 billion.[1] As this blog discussed in July, the General Assembly’s budget did not attempt to address the entire backlog in a single year. Rather, the Budget Implementation (BIMP) Act authorized a package of measures that sponsors claimed would reduce the deficit by about $8 billion. The act authorized up to $6 billion…
Analysis details concerns, recommendations and alternative paths forward (CHICAGO) In a report released today, the Civic Federation announced it opposes the Chicago Public Schools proposed FY2018 operating budget of $5.7 billion and total budget of $6.5 billion because it does not do enough to divert CPS from its dismal fiscal trajectory. Amid budget, liquidity, debt and pension funding crises, the FY2018 budget relies on nearly $570 million in still uncertain funding and on…
Click here to read the full report. The Civic Federation opposes the Chicago Public Schools’ proposed $5.7 billion operating budget and total budget of $6.5 billion because it does not do enough to divert CPS from its dismal fiscal trajectory. Amid budget, liquidity, debt and pension funding crises, the FY2018 budget relies on nearly $570 million in still uncertain funding and on costly short- and long-term borrowing for operations. Further, the District does not detail adequate back-up or…
