The Civic Federation supports the $492.1 million City Colleges of Chicago FY2010 budget because it is a prudent spending plan that both holds the District’s property tax levy flat over the next two years and compensates for uncertainties in State funding by proposing alternative plans to support core academic programs. The Federation is concerned that City Colleges is predicting revenue shortfalls through FY2013 and has not articulated a clear and detailed plan to address the funding…
Over the years, Illinois’ poorly funded retirement systems have put an enormous strain on the State’s budget. At times, the State has chosen to simply avoid the burden by making smaller contributions to the pension funds than required under a 1995 pension funding law. As part of the $54 billion FY2010 operating budget passed on July 15, 2009, the General Assembly and Governor chose to make the full pension payment of $4.5 billion required by law. However, the method the State has chosen…
In this column, Steve Huntley explores the deadlock in Springfield over the State of Illinois budget. He cites the Civic Federation’s analysis of Governor Quinn’s proposed budget, which advocated state employee pension and health care benefit reforms and budget cuts before any kind of tax increase.
The Civic Federation's Institute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability produced this analysis of the proposed FY2010 Illinois operating and capital budgets. The Civic Federation does not support the proposed operating budget because it raises taxes without fixing the state's structural deficit. If significant pension and employee healthcare reforms are implemented, the Federation could support a smaller income tax increase targeted at reducing the state's existing obligations in the areas of…
Urges General Assembly to Reject Proposed Illinois Budget CHICAGO (May 11, 2009)—The Civic Federation rejects Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed $52.9 billion FY2010 operating budget because it raises taxes without fixing the state’s core problems. The Federation’s new Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability released today a 90-page analysis of the budget, offering alternative proposals that would more effectively stabilize the state’s finances while making the full certified pension…
This report provides a trend analysis of indicators that measure the financial health and performance of ten major local government pension funds from 1998 to 2007, the most recent year for which audited data are available. It finds that unfunded liabilities for the ten funds climbed even during years of good investment returns, increasing from $4.8 to $17.1 billion in ten years, and makes numerous recommendations on legislative actions that should be taken to slow the downward spiral of…
While the ten major local government employee pension funds in Cook County experienced a slight decrease in their total deficit before the onset of recession in late 2007, the Civic Federation has found that local pension funds were in trouble well before the decline in the stock market. The Federation’s annual status of local pensions report, released today, concluded that the funds’ total deficit more than tripled between FY1998 and FY2007. “Amid the panic the 2008 audited pension reports…
The Civic Federation's Institute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability produced this guide for addressing the state's FY2010 budget. The roadmap provides an in-depth outline of best practices for a budget that would confront the state's growing fiscal crisis, including the areas of state spending, revenue, pensions, employee and retiree health insurance, Medicaid, capital, and asset sales.
This report reviews best practices in the composition of public pension boards of trustees nationwide, and makes recommendations on improvements to pension boards in Illinois.
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2009 include public pension reform, the dissolving of the Illinois International Port District, creating a new governing board for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, requiring all counties to hold budget hearings, requiring large counties to produce timely annual audits, enacting tax increment financing reporting reform, requiring school financial management accountability reforms, and authorizing state and local government entities to…
