This article looks at both mayoral candidates’ proposals for addressing the City of Chicago’s financial challenges, which include severely underfunded pension funds, a high debt level and Chicago Public Schools’ $1 billion deficit. The Civic Federation said that even after pension fund reforms it is hard to see how these liabilities could be fully addressed without future property tax increases.
Under Governor Bruce Rauner’s proposed FY2016 budget, one of the largest sources of state funding for local governments in Illinois would be reduced by half. The reduction is part of more than $4 billion in spending cuts and $2.2 billion in estimated pension savings recommended by the Governor to close a projected budget gap of over $6 billion in fiscal year 2016. Local governments in Illinois are not allowed to levy income taxes. Instead, they receive a share of State income tax proceeds from…
This column discusses Governor Rauner’s pension reform proposal which accounts for $2.2 billion of the projected savings in his FY2016 budget recommendation. The key component of the proposal is a freeze on the State’s Tier 1 pension benefits, which the Civic Federation’s Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability examined in a recent blog.
The State of Illinois reduces its operating resources by more than 25% annually to provide individuals and businesses tax benefits through exemptions also known as tax expenditures. In FY2013, the most recent year that data have been reported on tax expenditures, the exemptions in Illinois totaled $8.4 billion, which would have increased State-source General Funds revenues of $31.9 billion by 26.2%. The two largest exemptions are the exclusion of all federally taxable retirement income from…
This article reviews the Institute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation’s FY2016 State Budget Roadmap, an annual report released prior to the Governor’s budget address. The recommendations in the comprehensive 5-year plan would immediately stabilize the State’s operating budget, establish a sustainable long-term financial plan and pay off the State’s $6.4 billion backlog of unpaid bills.
This article discusses recommendations made in the FY2016 State Budget Roadmap, an annual report released by the Institute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation prior to the Governor’s budget address. The 5-year plan includes tapping into new revenue sources that will stabilize the State’s budget while protecting essential government services.
In a report released today, the Civic Federation’s Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability proposes a comprehensive five-year plan that responds to the dire reality of Illinois’ financial condition with painful, but necessary recommendations. The plan immediately stabilizes the State’s operating budget and establishes a sustainable long-term financial plan that would pay off Illinois’ unpaid bill backlog of approximately $6.4 billion. The full 56-page report is available here. Nearly…
Prior to the release of the Governor’s annual budget recommendation, the Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation releases an analysis of the State of Illinois’ fiscal condition and proposes a comprehensive five-year plan for achieving long-term fiscal sustainability for the State of Illinois. This plan responds to the dire reality of Illinois’ financial condition with painful, but necessary recommendations. Nearly five years after the official end of the national…
This article discusses Governor Bruce Rauner’s call for a two-year freeze on the property taxes that fund local governments in Illinois. The Civic Federation warned that many local governments in Illinois are facing severe financial crises, many of which are exacerbated by the State’s own financial problems.
The State of Illinois projected a major loss of income tax revenues in FY2015 due to the reduced rates for individuals and corporations that took effect on January 1, 2015. However, corporate income taxes have taken a steeper decline than originally projected and began to fall even before the rate declined to 5.25% from 7.0% halfway through the fiscal year. The December 2014 monthly revenue report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) showed corporate income…
