06.23.11
The Illinois General Assembly reconvened on June 22, 2011 for an extra day of the spring session to sort out several issues that were not addressed three weeks ago when the legislature adjourned after approving a $33.2 billion budget.
Both the House and the Senate took action to...
06.08.11
A critical fiscal process for state and local governments is the planning and funding of capital projects. The literature on best practices for capital budgeting is not as robust as for operating budgets and there is significant variety in the practices of governments. There are a number of...
05.10.11
The State of Illinois’ largest area of capital investment, transportation projects, received a funding boost this week when the federal government announced additional grants to support high-speed rail projects in Illinois.
The U.S. Department of Transportation...
02.03.11
The State of Illinois is anticipating a large increase in revenues from income tax rate increases approved in January and additional resources from borrowing to make its pension payment for the second year in a row. Even so, the Governor and General Assembly are considering borrowing billions...
12.21.10
Congress appears to have sealed the fate of the federal Build America Bond (BAB) subsidy by not including renewal of the program in the package of unemployment benefits and tax incentives authorized last week. Now with less...
11.11.10
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2011 include public pension reform, requiring state government to develop and implement a capital improvement plan, the dissolving of the Illinois...
10.26.10
The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) proposed FY2011 budget of $1.3 billion but has significant concerns for the agency in the longer term. The budget...
09.03.10
Earlier this week the Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation released a comparative analysis of the cost...
09.03.10
To help the public gain a better understanding of its 2011 preliminary budget and funding programs, the Regional Transit Authority is hosting two free “webinars” on September 16 and September 22. The webinars will allow the public to attend the...
08.30.10
This issue brief provides a comparative analysis of the cost of the $9.6 billion in bonds the State of Illinois issued between September 2009 and July 2010. The report estimates that Illinois...
