As discussed in a previous blog post, the unprecedented public health emergency brought on by coronavirus has led local governments in Illinois to enact emergency measures and loosen rules related to the Open Meetings Act. Local government bodies have been meeting remotely pursuant to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s Executive Order 2020-07 issued on March 16. In the absence of normal meetings and…
The Chicago Board of Education adopted an amended budget for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) 2020 fiscal year on November 20, 2019 to account for changes reflected in the collective bargaining agreements reached between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for FY2020 through FY2024. The CPS fiscal year runs from July 1…
The Chicago Public Schools FY2020 Budget is an example of fund-based budgeting. Collected revenues are assigned to different funds intended to support various governmental functions. The interactive chart below is a Sankey diagram showing the flow of revenues through funds and to the District’s expenditures. A full analysis of the CPS FY2020 proposed budget can be found here. The data is…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. Click here to see a diagram of CPS revenues and expenses. SUMMARY The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) proposed budget for FY2020 because it demonstrates continued financial stability in the third year of Evidence-Based Funding from the State of Illinois. However, the…
This year is the third year that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will receive funding from the State of Illinois through the statewide Evidence-Based Funding formula that was signed into State law in August 2017. The CPS 2020 fiscal year runs from July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020. The Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula is more equitable than the prior General State Aid formula. It calculates…
The newly appointed Chicago Public Schools Board of Education has made several changes to the meeting structure at the monthly board meetings and, for the first time, livestreamed the board meeting held on July 24, 2019. This was the second board meeting for the seven new board members appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The new board has expressed its commitment to making Board of Education…
The following blog post discusses how the City of Chicago has used surplus revenue in its tax increment financing (TIF) districts since 2013. TIF is a powerful economic development tool for the City of Chicago, particularly at a time when capital and development funding from the State of Illinois and federal government has been scarce. One out of every four properties in the City is in a TIF…
Last week, the Civic Federation wrote about the Chicago City Council’s recent approval of a resolution to begin livestreaming committee meetings in September 2019. The Civic Federation continues to recommend that the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education follow suit on livestreaming their meetings. As the largest school district in Illinois, Chicago Public Schools should be a leader in the…
In a series of blog posts last year, the Civic Federation examined the Illinois State Actuary’s first analysis of the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund (CTPF) actuarial assumptions and the impact changes to the actuarial assumptions recommended by the State Actuary had on the CTPF’s funded status. This blog post provides an update to those posts for decisions made during CTPF’s fiscal year 2018. In…
2019 Civic Federation Legislative Priorities The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2019 include public employee pension reforms, consolidation of local government units in Illinois, enacting policies to rationalize the property tax system, creation of a Local Government Protection Authority, requiring the State of Illinois to…
