This article discusses a plan to provide $20 million in property tax rebates to City of Chicago homeowners. Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation, notes that the program is likely to have a very modest impact to Chicago taxpayers.
Proposal keeps property tax levy, tuition rates relatively flat despite inadequate funding from State of Illinois In an analysis released today, the Civic Federation announced its support of the City Colleges of Chicago’s proposed FY2017 operating budget. The $523.7-million budget is a reasonable plan given the unprecedented uncertainty surrounding funding from the State of Illinois as it enters a second year without enacting a comprehensive balanced state budget. The full 48-page report is…
This article discusses the tough financial decisions Cook County will have to make in order to address its expected budget deficit. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall explains that Cook County has been grappling with financial issues after recent tax increases and suggests the County look for ways to decrease the cost of wages and benefits that account for most of the day-to-day spending.
After a yearlong stalemate, the State of Illinois finally saw a crack in its ongoing budget impasse on the last day of the fiscal year. The General Assembly rushed approval of bills authorizing a full year of preschool through high school education funding, including additional assistance for the Chicago Public Schools, along with a partial spending plan for other government services to cover some FY2016 and FY2017 costs. The stopgap budget bills were passed and signed into law…
In April 2016, the Illinois Department of Revenue announced that it discovered a misallocation totaling an estimated $168 million in extra Personal Property Replacement Taxes (PPRT) distributed to 6,527 local government taxing entities throughout Illinois. This misallocation equals 6% of the total $2.8 billion PPRT payments made to local governments in tax years 2014 and 2015. Each local government that received wrongful PPRT funding will need to refund the State beginning in 2017. Overview of…
This article reports on the City of Chicago’s record property tax increase and how it will affect City homeowners this year. Laurence Msall, President of the Civic federation, notes that with Chicago’s historic underfunding of pensions, Cook County taxpayers are likely to face increased property taxes for the indefinite future.
This article reports on a City of Chicago plan to create a property tax rebate to lower the tax burden to City homeowners. Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation, says it’s difficult to see how Chicago can afford a property tax rebate plan with its current financial issues and notes that there are more effective alternatives.
This segment reports on the Illinois General Assembly overriding Governor Rauner’s veto of pension reforms for the City of Chicago’s police and fire pension funds and on the short and long-term effects of the legislation. Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation, says the reforms will ease financial pressure for City taxpayers in the short-term and give the Mayor more flexibility going forward.
The Illinois Department of Revenue announced earlier this spring that the final equalization factor for the Cook County 2015 property assessment year (taxes payable in 2016) is 2.6685. The 2015 final equalization factor of 2.6685 is less than the final 2014 equalization factor of 2.7253. This does not mean that property taxes will go up or down. It means that, overall, the weighted average level of assessment[1] in Cook County for all types of property averaged over the past three years has…
This article reports on the City of Chicago’s recent agreement with the Laborers Pension Fund to save the fund from insolvency through a combination of union concessions and revenue from telephone tax increases. Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation, says that the new reforms could be the start of improvements for the City’s pension funds.
