The criminal justice system in Illinois is comprised of a multitude of different agencies and systems. This blog post will focus on the departments that make up the key criminal justice system agencies within Chicago and the State of Illinois, including agencies from three levels of government: municipal (City of Chicago), county (Cook County) and state (the State of Illinois). Each agency plays…
On June 23, 2022, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle issued a preliminary budget forecast for fiscal year 2023. The fiscal year begins December 1, 2022 and ends November 30, 2023. The report provides end-of-year estimates for the current 2022 fiscal year and a forecast for the upcoming 2023 fiscal year in the County’s operating funds. The operating funds include the General Fund, which…
With new data released by the Office of the Chief Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court earlier this year, a more complete understanding of the number of people confined to electronic monitoring, or home confinement, in Cook County—and the types of crimes they are charged with—is now available. There are two main pretrial electronic monitoring programs in Cook County—one operated by the Cook…
Update (May 24, 2022): The Cook County Finance Committee held a special meeting on the elected officials’ salary ordinance and approved the salary increases laid out in substitute ordinance 22-2825. It was also ratified by the Board of Commissioners. The elected officials’ salaries will increase by 10% in FY2023, and the lesser of 3% or the rate of CPI in each year thereafter. The Civic…
Click here to read the full report. Click here to read the press release for this analysis. MAJOR FINDINGS This report provides an estimate of the full market value of property in Cook County between tax years 2010 and 2019 using data provided by the Cook County Assessor and the Illinois Department of Revenue. It does not incorporate any changes to the value of property in Cook County…
Click here for a PDF of this issue brief. This post presents information on residential and commercial effective property tax rates in south Cook County municipalities in tax years 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2019. These 84 municipalities are all located in the South Cook County Assessment Triad.[1] The report also compares these effective tax rates to those for the City of Chicago in…
The Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County saw a change in leadership for the first time in 20 years in 2020. The change in administration presented an opportunity for meaningful reform of an office that had been notorious for corruption, delays and substandard constituent service. The Civic Federation, in partnership with the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the…
Click here to read the full report.Click here to read the press release.Click here to read the 2020 recommendations.Click here to read the 100 days update.INTRODUCTIONThe change in administration within the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County in December 2020 represented an opportunity for meaningful reform of an office that has been notorious for corruption, delays and…
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law on March 11, 2021 and provides for $350 billion in funding for eligible state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments. The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF), a section of ARPA, provide significant revenue support to state and local governments, and in contrast to prior pandemic relief such as the…
In less than a year from this writing, money will no longer be a factor in pretrial release decisions pertaining to defendants accused of committing crimes in Illinois. The elimination of cash bail was one of the major reforms in a criminal justice omnibus bill signed into law by Governor Pritzker in February 2021, and will take effect on January 1, 2023. This change in policy and practice…
