A $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase enacted by the State of Illinois in June to help fund the State’s Medicaid program is bringing in far less revenue than originally expected and could fall short of projections by as much as $125.7 million. However, due to the way the tax was enacted it is not expected to have a major impact on Medicaid funding. The Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) has reduced the estimate of additional revenues attributable to the cigarette tax increase citing a run on…
On June 30, 2011 the Civic Federation released Recommendations for a Financially Sustainable City of Chicago. The report offered a comprehensive set of forty recommendations to improve the City’s long-term fiscal condition. The reforms could be implemented over the next few fiscal years and covered a wide array of functions from pensions to public safety. Next month the City will release its proposed FY2013 budget. Despite cost saving initiatives implemented by the City over the past year, the…
Yesterday, DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin presented the DuPage County Proposed FY2013 Financial Plan to the County Board. DuPage County’s current fiscal year ends on November 30, 2012; the new 2013 fiscal year begins on December 1, 2012. Budget Overview DuPage County proposes a FY2013 budget of $431.8 million. The budget is a 1.8%, or $8.1 million, decrease from the FY2012 current budget of approximately $440 million. [1] These figures exclude grants, the DuPage County Health…
This article discusses strong investor interest in the City of Chicago’s recent $271 million sewer bond sale, despite the City’s severe financial challenges including a $369 million projected deficit for FY2013. The article cites the Civic Federation’s warning that contributions to the City's police and fire pensions will increase from $476 million in FY2012 to $1.2 billion in FY2015.
Although the State of Illinois is still burdened with a multibillion-dollar backlog of unpaid bills, one component of that backlog—unpaid income tax refunds—is now expected to be eliminated at the end of FY2013. The Illinois Department of Revenue projects that no approved refunds will be unpaid on June 30, 2013. That compares with $735 million owed at the end of FY2010 and only $70 million at year-end FY2012. Currently, no approved refunds are owed, according to…
Earlier this year, the Civic Federation published a blog describing the recent changes to the standards for how governments report fund balance. Fund balance is a term commonly used to describe the net assets of the governmental funds and serves as a measure of financial resources.[1] Fund balance is the difference between the assets and liabilities in the governmental funds.[2] Fund balance is more a measure of liquidity than of net worth and can be thought of as the savings account of the…
On August 17, 2012, Illinois legislators adjourned a special one-day session of the General Assembly without taking action on the State’s pension crisis. Due to the stalled effort, the State continues to face pension costs that will consume an increasing share of its resources over the next two decades. The chart below compares total pension costs—including State contributions and payments on pension bonds—with State-source general operating revenue. The share of revenue used for pension costs…
On July 19, 2012, the Civic Federation released its analysis of the proposed FY2013 budget for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in anticipation of the Board of Education’s vote on the budget scheduled for the following week. However, two days before the meeting, CPS announced that the Board vote would be postponed until negotiations between the District and the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) were complete and a contract agreement is reached. According to the Illinois School Code, the Board of…
This article discusses uncertainty surrounding the Chicago Public Schools' FY2013 budget. The FY2013 budget will remain unresolved after today's vote by the Chicago Board of Education because of ongoing contract negotiations with the teachers union. The Civic Federation cautions that the proposed budget drains all general funds reserves and leaves the District with no identifiable plan for dealing with looming budgetary pressures.
The State of Illinois’ enacted budget for FY2013 is missing key components needed to carry out the General Assembly’s spending plan, according to a recent filing in connection with State bond offerings. The bond disclosure documents, which were filed by Governor Pat Quinn’s Office on August 6, 2012, indicate that the enacted general operating funds budget totals $33.041 billion. In contrast, a press release issued after Governor Quinn signed the budget on June 30 stated that the budget totaled…
