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…
On October 4, 2011 the Civic Federation released an independent analysis of Chicago charter school finances. The 170-page report, which is the first of a two-part study supported by the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, examined the publicly available budgets and audited financial statements of all Chicago charter schools in operation during FY2007 and 2008, measured how well the…
This 170-page report is a comprehensive examination of Chicago charter school finances and financial performance in fiscal years 2007 and 2008. The primary purpose is to provide a first-ever financial analysis of Chicago’s charter schools. In addition, the report is a primer on charter schools, providing an overview of national charter school research, an outline of charter school funding models…
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…
On Monday the Civic Federation released its analysis of Chicago Public Schools $5.9 billion FY2012 budget proposal. The Federation supports the proposal as it provides a reasonable short-term plan to fund the District’s core educational mission during its difficult, deepening financial crisis. However, the Civic Federation has major concerns about the long term fiscal health of the District due…
The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Public Schools proposed $5.9 billion budget for FY2012, which is an increase of 1.5%, or $87.0 million, from the year-end estimates of FY2011. The proposed budget is a reasonable short-term plan to fund the District’s core educational mission through its difficult, deepening financial crisis. The Civic Federation is very concerned about the District’s…
In its fiscal year 2012 budget proposal, the Chicago Public Schools administration provided for the first time a three-year projection of its future financial situation on page 9. The projection shows that the total CPS employer pension contribution is expected to jump from $219.3 million in FY2013 to $671.7 million in FY2014, adding over $450 million in expenditure pressure to the CPS operating…
The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund accumulated nearly $5.4 billion in unfunded obligations over the past ten years. This was an increase of over 10,000%, from $5.1 million in FY2001 to $5.4 billion in FY2010. In three years alone, from FY2008 to FY2010, unfunded liabilities grew by $2.3 billion. Unfunded actuarial accrued liability is the dollar value of accrued liabilities not covered by the…
As explained previously in this blog a key indicator the Civic Federation uses to assess the financial health of local governments is the level of unreserved general fund balance maintained. Such reserves are essential in order for the governments to be able to withstand the inevitable “rainy days” that result from revenue fluctuations and unexpected expenditures. Without a fund balance in place…
