This week marks the end of the Civic Federation's fiscal year 2012 local government budget analysis season. The nine local governments monitored by the Civic Federation include: City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, DuPage County, City of Chicago, Cook County, Chicago Transit Authority, Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago…
In its Recommendations for a Financially Sustainable City of Chicago, the Civic Federation recommended that the City’s election function be transferred to Cook County. Consolidated election administration is the norm in Illinois. The Federation identified two primary benefits of such a merger: it would be more user-friendly and reduce voter confusion about which lines to stand in for early voting…
The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2012 include public pension reform, requiring the State of Illinois to develop and implement a capital improvement plan, dissolving the Illinois International Port District, creating a new governing board for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, requiring all counties to hold budget hearings and large counties to produce timely annual audits…
The Civic Federation supports the Cook County FY2012 Executive Budget Recommendation totaling $2.9 billion. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposed $2.2 billion General Fund budget is a 4.6%, or $107.4 million, decrease from the FY2011 adopted budget. The budget closes a $315.2 million shortfall with $219 million in spending cuts, $53 million in revenue enhancements and over 1,000…
The Cook County pension fund actuarial value funded ratio has fallen from 88.9% to 60.7% over ten years. The unfunded accrued actuarial liabilities have reached $5.2 billion or $993 per Cook County resident. While the County’s pension fund is not yet in quite as dire straits as some other state and local pension funds, it soon will be if no action is taken. Major reforms to contributions and…
Cook County’s fiscal year begins on December 1 and ends on November 30. The Civic Federation believes that all governments should adopt a budget at least one month in advance of the start of the fiscal year. For the County, that would be a November 1 budget adoption. In addition, the public should be provided with ample time to review the budget in advance of the public hearing. In the past, Cook…
Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office today released the 2010 Cook County Tax Rates Report. The report lists property tax rates for all taxing districts in Cook County and provides sample composite rates for many municipalities. The composite rate is the total tax rate that appears on a tax bill. The composite tax rate on a typical City of Chicago tax bill will increase from 4.627% last year to 4…
Today the Civic Federation published an update to its primer The Cook County Property Tax Extension Process: A Primer on Levies, Tax Caps, Tax Bills and the Effects of Tax Increment Financing Districts. The update adds additional years of data when available and provides an enhanced explanation of the effect of tax increment financing (TIF) on local governments and taxpayers in Cook County. This…
New rulings by the Illinois Department of Revenue have reignited a debate over whether the State’s non-profit hospitals provide adequate charity care to patients in exchange for their property-tax exemptions. On August 16, 2011 the Department of Revenue denied property tax exemptions to three hospitals and said it was reviewing applications from 15 others seeking exemptions . As is customary for…
This report provides estimates of the total market value of real property in Cook County from 2000-2009 and shows how property value is spread among the City of Chicago, the northern and the southern suburbs. The full market value of real estate in Cook County was approximately $550.1 billion in tax year 2009. This total value represents a decline of $66 billion, or 10.7%, from the 2008…
