Cook County second installment property tax bills are expected to come out late this year and might not be due until December 22. Will your bill be higher or lower than last year? It is very difficult to predict whether the tax bill for an individual parcel will increase or decrease in the future due to the complex interactions of many moving parts in the Cook County property tax system. The Civic Federation published a report last week describing how property tax rates are calculated…
Explains Effect of TIF on Local Governments in Cook County (CHICAGO) The Civic Federation released today the third in a series of four primers that explain how the property tax system in Cook County works—and doesn’t work. “Property Tax Extension Process” explains in plain-English how Cook County determines the amount of revenue local governments may collect. The report also describes the effect of Tax Increment Financing districts on local government revenue. The first two property tax primers…
The purpose of this report is to describe how property taxes are extended in Cook County, Illinois. It defines tax extension, explains the mechanics of calculating rate limits and tax caps, and describes the effects of Tax Increment Financing districts on the tax revenues of local governments. It also includes trend data on Equalized Assessed Value, tax rates, tax extensions, and TIF revenue. Finally, the report explains the difficulty of predicting changes to individual tax bills. Read the…
A tax increment financing (TIF) transparency bill (Public Act 096-1335) passed by the Illinois legislature in May and signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn on July 27 includes a number of long-standing Civic Federation recommendations detailed in the Federation’s 2007 TIF report: Each TIF will require a 10-year status report. The county or municipality that created the TIF would be required to publish a status report that includes detailed financial data. Public hearings on 10-year…
On June 15, 2010 the Chicago Board of Education approved measures to cope with the school district’s estimated $600 million deficit for the coming school year. The measures include authorizing the establishment of an $800 million line of credit to cover delayed state payments and authorizing CEO Ron Huberman to increase class sizes to 35 students if necessary. Could Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district revenues held by the City of Chicago be used to reduce the deficit and prevent…
On May 4, 2010 the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill that will significantly improve the transparency of information about Tax Increment Financing districts in Illinois. Senate Bill 3152 implements a number of the recommendations made by the Civic Federation in our 2007 TIF position statement which was based on the findings of our related TIF issue brief. The issue brief described the impact of TIF on property taxpayers as well as on non-municipal taxing bodies and explained how TIF…
When the Chicago City Council approved the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Sunshine Amendment in April of 2009 that called for the creation of a consolidated and enhanced TIF information website, the City took a significant step towards improving the transparency of its TIF districts. Although the creation of the website improved the accessibility of some TIF information, the Civic Federation recognized that further additions and improvements could help with the City’s TIF transparency efforts.…
The redesign of the Civic Federation website in July has provided the public, government officials, and the media better access to the Federation’s analyses of government services in Illinois. The regularly-updated Civic Federation blog especially has provided a constant source of information on the issues that the Federation covers, including local budgets and pensions, taxes, privatization and asset leases, and commentary on events in the news. Blog posts about local government budgets…
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2010 include public pension reform, requiring state government to develop and implement performance measurement and a capital improvement plan, the dissolving of the Illinois International Port District, creating a new governing board for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, reinstating means-tested transit discounts for seniors, requiring large counties to produce timely annual audits, enacting tax increment financing reporting reform,…
The Civic Federation opposes the FY2010 City of Chicago budget of $6.14 billion because it is unsustainable and relies too heavily on one-time reserve funds to close a $520.0 million budget deficit. The proposed drastic draw down of long-term reserves allows for increased spending in FY2010 but does not properly plan for the future. The City must consider FY2011 and FY2012 when crafting its FY2010 budget as the City’s revenues are not likely to rebound enough in the next 12 months to replace…
