In a report released today, the Civic Federation supports Cook County’s proposed FY2014 operating budget of $3.2 billion, which holds the property tax levy relatively flat by reducing expenditures and aggressively pursuing new revenue for the Cook County Health and Hospitals System under the federal Affordable Care Act. “This budget shows admirable restraint and forward thinking from Board President Preckwinkle and her leadership team,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation. “…
The Civic Federation supports Cook County’s proposed FY2014 operating budget of $3.2 billion for holding the property tax levy relatively flat, reducing expenditures and aggressively pursuing new revenue for the Cook County Health and Hospitals System under the federal Affordable Care Act. The administration continues to stabilize the County budget without increasing the property tax burden on County taxpayers by showing admirable restraint and forward thinking. Although the County has taken…
In June this blog described the property tax exemptions available to seniors in Illinois and explored the trends in the amount of property value they exempted from taxes over the past decade. This week, we look at the same trends for other property tax exemptions available to other categories of homeowners. Article IX, Section 6 of the Illinois Constitution permits the General Assembly to grant homestead exemptions. The General Assembly has granted eleven exemptions targeted at different groups…
This segment covers the release of the FY2014 Enacted Budget Analysis by the Civic Federation’s Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability on October 2. The report warns this year’s budget could be a high-water mark for the State, with future years bringing sharp reductions in revenues and further consequences of the unresolved pension crisis.
Over the next few weeks, many Chicago-area local governments will be releasing their proposed budgets for fiscal year 2014. In preparation for the upcoming budget releases, this blog will recap the Civic Federation’s significant observations from our analyses of local governments’ proposed FY2013 budgets. The governments studied by the Civic Federation include: the City Colleges of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) which have already released their FY2014 budgets, City of Chicago, Cook…
Failure to address pension crisis, plan for upcoming revenue loss threatens to erase progress on State’s backlog of unpaid bills (CHICAGO) – An analysis released today by the Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation warned that the FY2014 budget may represent a high-water mark with future years bringing sharp reductions in revenues and further consequences of the unresolved pension crisis. The legislature’s failure to address these critical issues threatens to erase…
This analysis of the State of Illinois’ Fiscal Year 2014 Enacted Budget finds that the budget may represent a high-water mark, with future years bringing sharp reductions in revenues and further consequences of the unresolved pension crisis. Although the State reduced the backlog of unpaid bills to $5.8 billion, that progress is threatened by legislative failure to prepare for extreme financial challenges on the immediate horizon. Pension costs in FY2014 total $7.65 billion, including annual…
The State of Illinois does not currently have a comprehensive policy on economic development incentives. Instead, the State offers a wide variety of financial incentives that reduce specific State or local tax burdens for businesses. This creates an uncertain tax environment for Illinois companies and leaves the State vulnerable to pressure from businesses located here and to competition from other states trying to entice firms to leave Illinois. During the fall 2011 veto session, this…
In recent years, the State of Illinois’ financial woes had been complicated by a massive backlog of unpaid income tax refunds. When the backlog was paid off by the end of FY2013, the State reaped a surplus of diverted funds that will boost revenues by $397 million in FY2014. Income tax revenues are diverted to the Income Tax Refund Fund to pay tax refunds owed to individuals and businesses. The Illinois Income Tax Act requires that any surplus in the Refund Fund must be transferred to General…
The Civic Federation does not support the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) proposed $6.6 billion operating budget for FY2014, which completely draws down unrestricted reserve funds and uses some restricted reserves to close a $977 million budget deficit. Even after the pain of layoffs and school closings, the District’s long-term fiscal health remains in jeopardy absent pension reform. The Federation acknowledges that the District’s budgetary options are severely constrained by the Illinois…
