The Civic Federation supports the $521.2 million FY2010 DuPage County budget proposal because it maintains funding for core programs while providing property tax relief. The County has additionally improved its budget planning process and increased government transparency. Read the press release for the FY2010 DuPage County budget proposal here.
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) recently implemented a vendor database that allows members of the public to search for vendor and contract information on the CTA website. The database is intended to improve the transparency of the CTA’s procurement activities by making data about individual vendors and contracts more easily accessible to the public, particularly vendors interested in doing…
On Monday September 28, 2009 the Civic Federation attended the second of three public hearings held by DuPage County regarding its recently-released FY2010 financial plan. This was the first year that the County has held formal, separate public hearings throughout DuPage on its proposed budget. The hearings are part of a larger effort by the County to improve transparency and public…
The Civic Federation sent a letter today to the Board of Forest Preserve Commissioners, which is also the Cook County Board of Commissioners, urging them to reject a request by the Village of Hinsdale for 30 acres of Forest Preserve District land to create a village park. The Board is scheduled to act on the request at a Forest Preserve District Board Meeting tomorrow, Wednesday, October 7th at…
This report compares effective property tax rates in selected communities around metropolitan Chicago and finds that many communities experienced a slight increase in their property tax burden in 2007. However, Chicago continues to have one of the lowest property tax burdens for residential, commercial, and industrial properties in the region. Click here to read the press release.
August 14, 2009’s Civic Federation blog post, “Tweeting Towards Transparency (Part 1),” discussed how the Cook County Board’s Twitter account has helped make the proceedings of county board and committee meetings more transparent for Cook County residents. Today’s follow up post approaches improving local government transparency on Twitter from a public awareness and marketing perspective.…
In order to make its capital selection process more transparent in FY2009, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has revised the way in which is selects and prioritizes capital projects. CTA’s revised capital selection process includes an additional layer of accountability with the creation of a new Capital Governance Board consisting of five of the CTA’s executive vice presidents, its budget…
Today the Civic Federation released its analysis of the FY2010 City Colleges Tentative Annual Operating Budget, supporting the District’s $492.1 million spending plan. The Federation believes the District is proposing a prudent budget, increasing appropriations by 0.9% over adjusted FY2009 budgeted appropriations, freezing the property tax levy for the next two years and proposing an…
The Civic Federation supports the $492.1 million City Colleges of Chicago FY2010 budget because it is a prudent spending plan that both holds the District’s property tax levy flat over the next two years and compensates for uncertainties in State funding by proposing alternative plans to support core academic programs. The Federation is concerned that City Colleges is predicting revenue…
This report analyzes the public funding for 12 major cultural institutions in Cook County that receive property tax-based funding from the Chicago Park District or the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. It makes recommendations for alternative funding sources that could stabilize the public funding for these and other institutions.
