Starting today, increases in the taxation rates on soft drinks, personal grooming and hygiene products, and candy will take effect to help pay for improvements to Illinois’ infrastructure. The tax base of these three categories of merchandise will change from the low food and medicine rate of 1% to the higher general merchandise rate of 6.25%. Many municipalities add an extra tax to the base State rate. Please click here to find your local tax rate. The State sales tax on liquor will also…
CHICAGO -- Citing reasonable measures taken by Chicago Public Schools to balance its $6.9 billion budget, the Civic Federation announced its support of the District’s FY2010 spending plan today. The District has cut personnel and proposed drawing down reserves and a modest increase to the CPS property tax levy to close a $473 million budget deficit, the largest since 1995. Visit civicfed.org to download the full 67-page report and read a staff blog post about the budget. Early in the budget…
The Civic Federation supports the $6.9 billion Chicago Public Schools FY2010 proposed budget. The District employed reasonable measures to balance its budget in light of a $473 million deficit, including cuts to personnel and a proposed drawing down of reserves. The Federation also supports the District’s modest 1.5% increase to its property tax levy. Going forward, the Federation has concerns about the District’s growing annual pension liabilities, which is a principle driver of its…
Today the Civic Federation released its analysis of Chicago Public Schools’ proposed FY2010 budget. On page 61 of the analysis we discuss the District’s dramatically escalating annual pension contribution costs. The District’s statutorily-required pension contribution was $177.8 million in FY2009. In FY2010 it will jump to $307.5 million, a one-year increase of $129.7 million or 72.9%. But this is just the beginning. The outlying years paint a grim picture for the District’s finances. In…
Since 2004, the City of Chicago has transacted three major long term asset leases worth over $3.5 billion. The Chicago Skyway (2004) – A 99-year lease with Cintra-Macquarie with a transaction value of $1.83 billion. Downtown Parking Garages (2006) – A 99-year lease with Morgan Stanley. This transaction was also with the Chicago Park District. The total value of the transaction is $563 million. Chicago Parking Meters (2009) – A 99-year lease with Morgan Stanley with a transaction…
This segment on the news program “Eight Forty-Eight” examines Chicago Public Schools’ proposed FY2010 budget and the District’s underfunded pension system. It features an interview with Civic Federation President Laurence Msall, who says that union contracts will likely need to be examined and possibly renegotiated in order to avert a looming pension crisis.
This nightly news segment about Chicago Public Schools’ proposal to raise property taxes in order to close a $500 million budget gap features Civic Federation Senior Research Associate Genevieve Nolan, who says that the proposed increase is a modest and reasonable one, but the District will still need to work with State officials and the Chicago Teachers Union to reform teacher pensions.
With the Chicago Public School system facing massive teacher pension liabilities in the next several years, the Civic Federation notes that fixing the pension tsunami will require drastic steps that might include reopening teacher contracts or waiving teacher pay increases.
In this article about the Chicago Public Schools’ proposed FY2010 budget, the Civic Federation points out that the District will not be raising its property tax levy to the maximum amount allowed by law, but notes that CPS faces enormous financial challenges in coming years from its growing pension liabilities.
Police, parks, streets, schools, community colleges, public hospitals, elections, courts, jails, mosquito abatement, sewage treatment…these are just a few of the services that, in Illinois, are provided by many different local governments. Illinois has more units of local government than any other state in the nation, with 6,994 as of October 2007. Many of these governments rely on property taxes as a revenue source. Whether you are an owner or renter of property, you pay property taxes to a…
