04.19.12
Public officials and opinion leaders in Illinois have expressed much interest in the landmark pension reforms approved in Rhode Island in 2011. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel...
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03.01.12
With new attention being paid to the cost of the State of Illinois’ Medicaid program, it seems logical to ask why the total annual costs of the program are not reflected in the State...
02.29.12
This blog continues the Civic Federation’s examination of indicators that can be used to assess the financial health of local governments. The Federation is working on a project that compares the City of Chicago with a group of thirteen large U.S. cities that have also been the subject of...
01.20.12
Six months after the end of the last fiscal year, the Illinois State Comptroller is reporting that $5.2 billion of FY2012 revenues were needed to pay off the State’s bills from...
01.18.12
The Civic Federation is working on a project to examine indicators that can be used to assess the financial health of local governments. Previously, this blog compared Chicago’s fund balance with a...
01.11.12
Data from the most recent audited financial statements of Illinois’ state and local government pension funds shows that the total unfunded liabilities for public employee pensions supported by the taxes of Chicago residents reached $14,896 per capita for fiscal year 2010. That is up...
12.21.11
In this latest entry in a blog post series on local government pension funds, the Civic Federation analyzes the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s pension fund.
The MWRD is the only sanitary district in Illinois to have its own pension fund. All other...
12.01.11
The Chicago Park District is the only park district in Illinois with its own pension fund. All other park districts participate in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund . The Chicago Park District pension fund is governed by a seven-member Board of Trustees,...
09.22.11
The Illinois State Comptroller’s Office recently issued its annual report on tax expenditures. The report is published pursuant to a provision of the State Comptroller Act (15 ILCS 405/...
12.21.10
State and local governments utilize fund accounting in order to demonstrate accountability and compliance with rules, laws and regulations. [1] For example, Cook County has a multitude of funds including a Public Safety Fund, Health Fund, an...