08.31.18
With governments in Illinois facing steep increases in yearly pension contributions, new plans are being floated to borrow billions of dollars to stabilize ailing pension funds and relieve budgetary pressures.
The...
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08.19.16
August 24, 2016
UPDATE 3: The State now plans to post the draft waiver application on August 26 and hold public hearings in Springfield on September 8 and Chicago on September 9. For more...
07.14.16
Despite a stopgap spending measure enacted on June 30, 2016, State of Illinois appropriations for higher education remain below expenditures in fiscal year 2015—the last year the State had a complete...
07.01.16
After a yearlong stalemate, the State of Illinois finally saw a crack in its ongoing budget impasse on the last day of the fiscal year. The General Assembly rushed approval of bills authorizing a full year of preschool through high school education funding, including additional assistance for...
06.17.16
In advance of a $550 million bond sale this week, the State of Illinois announced it had negotiated new terms with the largest holder of Illinois swaps. The new lower level for termination of the swaps based on Illinois’ credit ratings dropped to Ba1 with Moody’s Investors Service and BB+ with...
05.19.16
With the current year’s budget still incomplete, the State of Illinois is now facing the prospect of starting another year without a financial plan.
Due to a political dispute between Illinois’ Republican Governor and Democratic legislators who control the General Assembly, the State...
05.05.16
The State of Illinois can add another complication to its already stressed financial condition, an $800.7 million shortfall in its capital spending plan caused by failure in several of the dedicated revenue sources enacted to fund debt service.
The State relies heavily on the sale of...
04.22.16
The State of Illinois’ budget impasse could cost taxpayers another $138 million due to liabilities associated with its swaps portfolio, if the lack of a spending plan causes its bond ratings to fall much further.
As previously...
04.14.16
The Civic Federation co-hosted a conference with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on April 4, 2016 entitled, “Medicaid Expansion and the Affordable Care Act: A Fiscal Checkup.” Experts, practitioners and academics from around the country gathered to discuss the choices states have made with...
04.06.16
Due to its growing backlog of overdue group health insurance bills, the State of Illinois is expected to pay a total of at least $454 million in interest penalties in the current and upcoming budget years, according to a...