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…
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…
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…
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-…
This article discusses recommendations from the Civic Federation’s analysis of City Colleges of Chicago’s FY2018 budget proposal. As mentioned in the analysis, the Federation supports the FY2018 budget proposal and City Colleges’ plans to rebuild reserves but advocates for the District to explore indexing its tuition and fees and possibly tying them to an annual escalator. Click here for…
After two years with no complete budget except for public school funding, Illinois now faces the prospect of beginning the 2017-18 school year with a budget for everything except schools. On August 1 Governor Rauner issued an amendatory veto of the school funding bill, SB1, passed by the General Assembly on May 31. Because the appropriations bill enacted in July over the Governor’s veto required…
Proposal aims to reverse damage done by two-year state budget impasse (CHICAGO) In an analysis released today, the Civic Federation announced its support of the City Colleges of Chicago’s proposed FY2018 operating budget. The $442.6-million budget is a prudent plan to begin to stabilize the District’s finances following an unprecedented two-year State of Illinois budget impasse that severely…
Click here to read the full report. The Civic Federation supports the City Colleges of Chicago’s proposed FY2018 operating budget. The $442.6 million budget is a prudent plan to begin to stabilize the District’s finances following an unprecedented two-year State of Illinois budget impasse that severely impacted institutions of higher learning. As mentioned in the full report, the District is…
This article examines the $850 million in interest costs that the Chicago Public Schools will have to pay on a recent $500 million loan. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall explains that the plan is an expensive way of operating and notes that the District desperately needs a long-term financial strategy in order to establish options other than such expensive borrowing.
In this segment, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall discusses key aspects of the State of Illinois’ FY2018 budget and the challenges the State still faces. He says the most important aspect of Illinois having a budget is that it puts parameters on the obligations the State will in incur in the coming fiscal year.
