Although the State of Illinois in entering the second month of its new fiscal year without an operating budget, the Governor and General Assembly have agreed on a capital construction budget for fiscal year 2016. Governor Bruce Rauner issued several line item vetoes to the capital appropriations bill, which primarily reauthorized ongoing spending from the Illinois Jobs Now! program that began in 2010. Following a proposal included in the Governor’s recommended FY2016 capital budget,…
This article gives an overview of the Chicago Public Schools FY2016 budget released August 10 for the fiscal year that began July 1. The Civic Federation said the spending plan that relies on the State of Illinois to provide $480 million in additional funding or pension relief is enormously risky, and the budget does not detail the consequences if the State does not provide that funding.
This article reviews findings in the City of Chicago’s Annual Financial Analysis, released July 31. The Civic Federation said the only thing that can improve Chicago’s financial position is a comprehensive plan that relies on sustainable revenue sources rather than borrowing.
This article examines the projected deficit of $426 million reported in the City of Chicago’s Annual Financial Analysis, which does not include additional contributions required under existing State law to the City’s police and fire pension funds. The Civic Federation said it is very difficult to see how the City could close the budget deficit without a significant increase in property taxes.
This article covers the $426 million budget deficit projected in the City of Chicago’s Annual Financial Analysis released July 31. The $426 million budget gap does not include nearly $550 million in additional contributions required by State law for the City’s Police and Fire Funds because the City is petitioning the General Assembly and Governor to lower the required contribution.
On July 15, 2015, the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted 9-7 to once again increase the county sales tax by one percentage point, taking effect on January 1, 2016. Once in place for one full year, Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office projects that the tax hike will generate nearly $474 million in revenues and proposed that revenues be dedicated to start to pay down the County’s $6.5 billion in pension obligations and to fund infrastructure projects. The County’s portion of the sales…
This segment features Civic Federation President Laurence Msall and DePaul Assistant Professor Nick Kachiroubas discussing the July 15 Cook County sales tax increase. The uncertainty regarding whether the sales tax can legally be used to fund the County’s pension system was reviewed.
This article covers the July 15 vote by the Cook County Board of Commissioners to increase the sales tax by one percentage point beginning in 2016. The Civic Federation opposed the increase and said this type of proposal should be part of the annual budgeting process in the fall.
This editorial discusses the Cook County sales tax increase narrowly passed by the Cook County Board July 15 that would go into effect in 2016. The Civic Federation opposed the sales tax increase and said that the legality of using sales tax toward contributions to the County’s pension fund is unclear.
The State of Illinois’ new fiscal year began on July 1, 2015 without an annual budget and with no clear end in sight to the impasse between Governor Bruce Rauner and the General Assembly. On July 9, the legislature was widely expected to send the Governor a stopgap budget designed to fund essential State operations for one month. However, that effort stalled amid a partisan dispute about paying for State workers’ salaries. This blog post reviews the circumstances leading up to the current…
