12.24.13
Last week the Civic Federation marked the end of the FY2014 budget season with a blog that summarized the proposed budgets for the eight local governments the Federation monitors. These governments include the...
Library
12.19.13
Last week marked the end of the FY2014 budget season for the eight local governments monitored by the Civic Federation. These governments are the...
11.07.13
The Civic Federation supports the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s FY2014 proposed $178.8 million budget that holds the property tax levy flat and maintains substantial reserve...
10.11.13
As part of its ongoing analysis of State and local government budgets, the Civic Federation also reviews proposed capital budgets along with any planning documents provided in support of infrastructure investments.
Although many governments approve new and reappropriated capital spending...
10.09.13
Four large local government pension funds in the Chicago area reduced their expected investment rates of return for fiscal year 2012. While intended to make the funds’ actuarial assumptions more realistic, these decisions will also have the effect of increasing the funds’ liabilities...
10.03.13
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’...
09.26.13
Since July 2013 each of the six local governments monitored by the Civic Federation with General Obligation bond debt has experienced downgrades to their bond ratings. These governments are the City of Chicago, Cook County, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), the Forest Preserve...
09.21.13
August 14, 2009’s Civic Federation blog post, “ Tweeting Towards Transparency (Part 1) ,” discussed how the Cook County Board’s Twitter account has helped make the proceedings of county board and...
05.22.13
This week the Civic Federation released its annual Status of Local Pension Funding report . The purpose of this report is to compile and analyze basic financial data of the retirement funds for the...
05.21.13
Chicago-area public employee pension funding levels dropped significantly in FY2011, with unfunded liabilities for the ten funds analyzed rising to $32.0 billion from $27.4 billion in FY2010, an...