01.09.19
Decisions by two of the largest State of Illinois pension funds to reduce their expected rates of return on investment have garnered headlines , but they were not...
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12.30.15
The following are the five most read posts presented by the Civic Federation blog in 2015. These posts examine a number of closely followed local government issues, ranging from City and County taxes to Chicago pension debt.
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08.06.15
The City of Chicago recently released its Annual Financial Analysis for 2015 . According to an executive order ...
07.28.15
UPDATE: On September 9, 2015, a lawsuit challenging the streaming services was filed on behalf of seven plaintiffs against the City of Chicago. The plaintiffs argue that because they subscribe to various streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu and Spotify, they “...
04.14.15
What local government purposes, services, or expenditures does your property tax dollar fund? Governments traditionally use property tax revenues to pay for a wide variety of expenditures, including employee salaries and pensions, debt service and administrative costs. But, there are significant...
03.05.15
Even after lowering the City of Chicago’s bond rating another step last week, Moody’s Investors Service maintains a negative outlook on the City, heightening the risk of additional ratings actions and possibly increasing termination costs on its swap agreements.
On Friday...
11.05.14
For the third year in a row, the budget proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel for the City of Chicago relies on the use of refunding bonds to pay for principal owed in the coming year rather than making payments from operating resources.
Although the details of the refunding bonds are not...
11.03.14
The Civic Federation supports the City of Chicago's proposed $7.3 billion budget because it reflects both reasonable structural changes and significant actions toward long-term stability,...
08.20.14
Public Act 98-0641, the City of Chicago’s pension reform bill , originally called for an increase in property taxes to help fund the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund (MEABF) and the Laborers’ and Retirement...