Governor Pat Quinn’s recommended budget for FY2015 proposes that the State of Illinois build a financial cushion to deal with future economic downturns. The Governor suggests the creation of an adequate “rainy day” fund in a five-year blueprint for the State, but specifics of the plan have not been provided. The State’s perilous financial situation—a looming revenue loss due to income tax rate rollbacks, billions of dollars in unpaid bills left over from the Great Recession and uncertain…
Although the budget recommended by Governor Pat Quinn for FY2015 proposes extending current income tax rates to avoid a massive revenue cliff, it also relies on borrowing $650 million to close a budget gap and pay down a portion of the State’s backlog of unpaid bills. Despite the additional income tax revenues, total General Funds revenues from State taxes and fees combined with federal resources do not cover all the expenditures proposed by the Governor. As shown in this table, the Governor’s…
UPDATE: On June 4, 2014, the State of Illinois filed its application for a $5 billion Medicaid plan with the federal government. Advocates for Medicaid recipients said they were told by State officials that there were no substantial changes from the version of the plan posted for public comment in February. Original post published on April 11, 2014 Despite a scheduled submission date of March 12, 2014, the State of Illinois has not yet filed an application to use more than $5 billion in new…
This article discusses the City of Chicago’s plan to restore 90% funded levels to its Municipal and Laborers pension funds by 2054 through a combination of property tax increases, increased employee contributions and lower cost-of-living increases for retirees. The Civic Federation said the plan strikes a reasonable balance of shared sacrifice among taxpayers, employees and retirees to stabilize the City’s finances.
On March 26, 2014, Governor Pat Quinn presented an FY2015 budget proposal for the State of Illinois that avoids a fiscal cliff by retaining temporary income tax increases that were scheduled to be phased out beginning in January 2015. The Governor’s recommended budget also significantly increases the property tax credit for homeowners on State income taxes. In order to balance the budget and pay down a portion of the State’s backlog of unpaid bills in FY2015, Governor Quinn’s proposal requires…
This article discusses Governor Quinn’s FY2015 budget recommendation, which calls for making Illinois’ temporary income tax rate increases permanent to help finance education and pay down unpaid bills. It cites the Civic Federation’s State of Illinois FY2015 Budget Roadmap, which found the State would face a $3.9 billion revenue drop by FY2016 if the income tax rates partially roll back as scheduled on January 1, 2015.
This article follows Governor Quinn’s FY2015 Budget Address and plan to make Illinois’ temporary income tax increase permanent to generate more State revenue. It cites the Civic Federation’s State of Illinois FY2015 Budget Roadmap, which recommended extending the current tax rate for one year before gradually reducing the rate by 20%.
This article covers Governor Quinn’s March 26 announcement of his plan to make Illinois’ temporary income tax increase permanent. The Civic Federation said the tax increase alone won’t signal to credit rating agencies that the State knows what to do to avoid another fiscal crisis. In its State of Illinois FY2015 Budget Roadmap the Civic Federation recommended that Illinois publish a long-term financial plan that is updated annually.
This article previews the budgetary challenges Governor Quinn is facing in advance of his March 26 fiscal year 2015 budget address. It cites the Civic Federation’s State of Illinois FY2015 Budget Roadmap, which recommends extending the current income tax rates for one year before gradually rolling back the individual and corporate rates by 20% to avoid a steep revenue cliff.
Next week Governor Pat Quinn will give his sixth budget address since taking office in 2009. The budget is expected to be one of the most difficult of his tenure considering that the State is currently expected to have approximately $5.4 billion in unpaid bills at the end of FY2014 and will see a loss of $1.6 billion in General Funds revenues in FY2015, due to the reduced income tax rates that take effect on January 1, 2015 under current law. After requesting a delay in the release of his…
