02.19.15
The Chicago Public Schools audited financial statements for fiscal year 2014 released last week indicate the deterioration of the District’s fiscal condition continued through the end of FY2014. The District’s most recent Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) reports ending FY2014 with an...
01.29.15
A 2009 GFOA white paper identified long-term financial planning as the central tool for local governments to become financially resilient. Financial resiliency is characterized by going beyond just financial sustainability to...
08.01.14
This week the City of Chicago released its Annual Financial Analysis for 2014 . According to an executive order...
07.25.14
CPS is balancing its budget in FY2015 in large part by shifting the time period used to report revenues from 30 to 60 days. This will allow the District to access $648.0 million in revenues that it would not otherwise have been able to use. However, this is a one-time maneuver that cannot be...
07.23.14
The Civic Federation does not support Chicago Public Schools proposed $6.8 billion budget for FY2015. The short-sighted budget does nothing to address the District’s grave fiscal crisis and...
06.19.14
The City of Chicago currently has the lowest rated credit of any major city in the country according to Moody’s Investors Service. At Baa1, the long-term bond rating is still several levels above falling out of...
05.08.14
The consolidation and dissolution of local units of government has been the subject of much discussion recently in Illinois. The purpose of this blog post is to briefly summarize a recent report released by the Illinois Local Government Consolidation Commission and other relevant legislation...
05.01.14
The Civic Federation joined with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on April 23, 2014 to co-host a conference on ways that municipalities in Illinois can avoid or resolve fiscal stress. Experts, practitioners and academics from around the...
03.06.14
Four weeks ago, the Civic Federation blogged about the Chicago City Council granting the City authority to issue general obligation (GO) bonds for the payment of various capital...
02.28.14
This week, Chicago Public Schools released its FY2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013. In it, the District reports a year-end FY2013 deficit of $119 million that was closed using fund balance. This is smaller than the $273 million deficit that was...
