As the General Assembly nears the final days of this year’s regular session with no FY2011 budget in sight, a group of lawmakers is attempting to advance the negotiations by proposing a $1.3 billion package of spending reductions and savings. The proposal by ten Democrats on May 24, 2010 represented an uncommon effort by Illinois lawmakers to suggest significant and broad-based reductions in the…
In this editorial about the various Illinois gubernatorial candidates’ plans to balance the State’s budget, the Pantagraph encourages candidates for state office to read the Civic Federation’s “Fiscal Rehabiliation Plan for the State of Illinois.”
In this joint column, Dennis Byrne and Eric Zorn discuss the origins and severity of Illinois’ fiscal crisis. Both columnists cite from the Civic Federation’s “Fiscal Rehabilitation Plan for the State of Illinois” to illustrate some of the possible solutions.
In this news segment about the inability of Illinois legislators to pass a FY2011 budget, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall says that Illinois cannot afford to borrow to fill the State’s budget deficit and that many of the budget proposals floated so far do not make adequate cuts.
In a roundtable discussion about the Illinois Legislature’s budget negotiations on this segment of the “Chicago Tonight” news program, Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said that the likelihood of a balanced budget being passed is slim. He also said the State’s delays in delivering its promised appropriations has put extreme pressure on service providers and local municipalities.
In this column about the options available to the State of Illinois to help fix its $13 billion budget deficit and the difficulty in reducing spending while also preserving government programs, Eric Zorn quotes the Civic Federation as saying that it is unable to identify any major programs the State has cut in the past 2 ½ years.
Don Wade and Roma interview Civic Federation President Laurence Msall about the Illinois budget crisis.
This article discusses the reasons why the Civic Federation opposed Governor Quinn’s proposed FY2011 budget, such as the budget’s inadequate spending cuts and lack of significant pension program reforms.
Governor Pat Quinn and his Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) appear to have different estimates of how much the State would save under the Governor’s proposal to require all state retirees to pay a share of their health insurance premiums. In announcing the Governor’s recommended FY2011 budget, his staff said that the State would save about $255 million by limiting the State’s…
The Chicago School Finance Authority (SFA) is scheduled to be officially dissolved on June 1, 2010. The SFA is a separate unit of government created in 1980 by the Illinois General Assembly and charged with “promoting the financial integrity” of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) (see the School Finance Authority statute, 105 ILCS 5/34A). In the wake of CPS’s 1979/1980 financial crisis, the…
