This article discusses the findings of the Civic Federation’s Estimated Full Value of Real Property in Cook County: 2007-2016. In 2016, the last year for which data is available, the estimated full value of property in Cook County continued to increase, hitting $528.8 billion. However, that number is still below the pre-recession peak. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said that though…
On April 5, 2018 the City Colleges of Chicago Board of Trustees unanimously approved Board Resolution 33420, which changes the tuition rate from a tier-based rate structure to a hybrid tuition rate structure. Beginning with the summer 2018 semester, part-time students enrolled in fewer than 12 credit hours will be charged on a per-credit hour based rate structure and full-time students enrolled…
The Civic Federation recently released its analysis of the CTA’s FY2017 Budget. The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s FY2017 operating budget of $1.52 billion because it holds base fares flat and continues to make strategic capital investments despite ongoing state funding uncertainty. As part the Civic Federation’s annual analysis of the CTA budget, the Federation uses…
This brief, developed by a Civic Federation Task Force, features a number of recommendations on ways the Chicago Public Schools can increase government transparency and accountability, including transparency in meetings, website transparency and budget presentation and format transparency. The Civic Federation believes that transparency is essential to good government. Government transparency…
This segment references two Civic Federation blog posts (here and here) and discusses the damage done to the State of Illinois as it continues to operate without a complete budget. Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation, notes that Illinois’ stopgap spending plan is not really a budget and that without a comprehensive plan, Illinois is spending more money than it has available.
The Civic Federation recently released a report that examines unincorporated areas in Cook County. This report builds on an earlier report released by the Civic Federation in 2014 by providing a comprehensive analysis of all unincorporated areas in Cook County as well as recommendations to assist the County in eliminating unincorporated areas. In the report, the Civic Federation presents findings…
This article covers the recent release of the Civic Federation’s comprehensive report on the unincorporated areas in Cook County, which encourages Cook County to develop and formally adopt a multi-year plan to eventually eliminate all of its unincorporated areas. Laurence Msall, President of the Civic Federation, remarks that having unincorporated areas without direct municipal services in a…
The west portion of Cook County includes the following nine Townships: Cicero, Leyden, Lyons, Norwood Park, Oak Park, Proviso, River Forest, Riverside and Stickney. Six of these townships have unincorporated areas. The exceptions are Cicero, Oak Park and River Forest Townships, which are coterminous with a municipal government. The report does not …
(CHICAGO) A report released today by the Civic Federation provides a comprehensive examination of all unincorporated areas in Cook County. The full 221-page report, available here, builds extensively on a 2014 report and includes final recommendations on how the County can improve general management of unincorporated areas, work with local governments to improve future planning efforts and reduce…
As part of the Civic Federation's report, Unincorporated Cook County: A Profile of Unincorporated Areas in Cook County and Recommendations to Facilitate Incorporation, profiles of the unincorporated areas in Cook County's North, West and South regions were compiled. Understanding more about the unique characteristics of these areas will help County and municipal officials, as well…
