This article reviews Mayor Emanuel’s first term in office prior to Chicago’s upcoming municipal election. The Civic Federation said the Emanuel administration has made significant strides in improving the City’s financial position including reducing the structural budget deficit by more than half.
This editorial discusses Governor Rauner’s budget recommendation for fiscal year 2016, which relies on program reductions and a pension reform proposal to address a $6.2 billion budget gap. The editorial cites the Civic Federation’s FY2016 State of Illinois Budget Roadmap, which recommends new revenue sources paired with spending controls to stabilize the State’s fiscal crisis.
The article covers the main points of Governor Rauner’s fiscal year 2016 budget recommendation, which includes significant program cuts and expanded pension reforms. The Civic Federation said the proposed budget is a starting point for discussion on how to tackle Illinois’ $6.2 billion budget gap.
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.
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…
A drop in Illinois’ income tax rates—and uncertainty about the implementation of pension changes—could cause the State’s backlog of unpaid bills to grow to $9.9 billion by the end of the 2016 budget year, according to a new forecast by Governor Pat Quinn’s office. Along with the decline in income tax revenues, the three-year projection for the State’s general operating budget through FY2018 assumes an increase in expenditures, mainly for pension contributions and for health insurance for…
On a preliminary trip to Springfield after winning the November election, Governor-elect Bruce Rauner held a press conference to draw attention to some of the gimmicks included in the current State budget, including interfund borrowing. Mr. Rauner called the plan to use $650 million borrowed from Special State Funds for FY2015 General Funds operations “fundamentally wrong.” The Governor-elect critiqued the practice, known as interfund borrowing, due to the requirement to pay back the funds…
The Illinois House adjourned on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 with no further session days scheduled before the 99th General Assembly begins in January 2015. The Illinois Senate is expected to adjourn on December 4, 2014 and has one addition session day scheduled for January 13, 2015. This will mark the end of the 98th General Assembly. At the end of each two-year legislative session, all of the bills not passed by both chambers of the General Assembly are cleared from the legislative agenda and…
