This article discusses the City of Chicago taking additional time to determine how to prevent the Chicago Public Schools from ending the school year early due to financial issues. Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation, notes that it is a positive development that the District’s school year will remain intact but also warns that any additional funding that the City and District can pull together in the short-term will be unsustainable.
This article discusses what options the City of Chicago might have to aid the Chicago Public Schools and prevent the District from ending the school year early due to serious financial issues. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall urged the City to be cautious so that the money necessary to keep the District open does not come at the expense of further downgrades or instability for the City.
As Illinois approaches the end of its second year without a complete budget, lawmakers are debating a new plan to provide partial funding for higher education and human services. This blog post examines the size of the funding gap and how far the proposal would go toward closing it. Most State spending has continued during the prolonged budget impasse due to court orders, consent decrees, existing statutory authority and full-year enacted appropriations for elementary and secondary education.…
Links to each presentation can be found within the forum's agenda below: --- 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. — Registration and Continental Breakfast Badge Pickup and Security Inspection in the Lobby 8:00 a.m. — Welcome Kent Swanson, Civic Federation Chairman, Executive Vice President, Riverside Investment and Development 8:05 a.m. — Balance Sheet Measures of Fiscal Capacity William Testa, Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Realty-…
This article discusses a proposal by Governor Bruce Rauner that would freeze property taxes in Illinois and the financial repercussions it could have on the State’s local governments. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall says that if Illinois is going to enact a property tax freeze, it should present a plan for how its many distressed local governments will still be able to fund their pensions, debt service and core services.
This article examines proposed legislation that would create a Local Government Protection Authority in Illinois, a longtime priority of the Civic Federation. In his testimony at an Illinois House committee hearing regarding the bill, Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation, remarked that the benefit of the proposed law would be to establish a systematic means of evaluating and assisting Illinois’ financially distressed local governments.
On March 22, two State Senate committees heard testimony on Illinois’ fiscal crisis. The not surprising message of the nearly three-hour hearing: the State’s budget problems have built up over many years, driven largely by rising pension costs, and will not be easy to fix. Thomas Walstrum, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, testified about his research on the history of Illinois’ fiscal performance, which compares Illinois’ spending and revenues with that of other…
This segment discusses a recent Illinois Senate Appropriations Committee hearing and how the State of Illinois has gone without a budget for more than 20 months. During his testimony at the hearing, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said that there are no politically attractive or easy options left for Illinois to balance its budget.
This article discusses a recent Illinois Senate Appropriations Committee hearing where legislators heard testimony regarding the State’s continued spending far in excess of its known revenues due to the absence of a budget. During his testimony, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall highlighted recommendations from the Federation's State of Illinois FY2018 Budget Roadmap, which presents a plan for stabilizing Illinois’ finances, and also answered lawmakers’ questions about the irreparable…
This segment discusses how nearly eight years after the City’s failed Olympic bid, Chicago taxpayers are still paying for the unused Michael Reese site. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall remarks that the site is the worst financial hangover from the Olympic bid and says that the City of Chicago should get out from underneath the costs associated with it.
