Civic Federation Blog

02.02.12

Civic Federation and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to Co-Host March 14 Conference on Public-Private Partnerships

State and local governments across the nation increasingly are using alternative service delivery efforts, known as public-private partnerships (P3s) to provide a wide variety of services, from printing to janitorial services to major infrastructure projects. The reasons for moving to a P3...

01.26.12

GASB 54: New Standards for Fund Balance Reporting

In order to address sometimes inconsistent application of reporting standards for fund balance by governments, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued GASB Statement No. 54: Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions in February 2009. GASB Statement No. 54...

01.18.12

Continuing Services Ratio in Large Cities

The Civic Federation is working on a project to examine indicators that can be used to assess the financial health of local governments. Previously, this blog compared Chicago’s fund balance with a group of thirteen large U.S. cities that have also been the subject of analysis by the Pew...

01.11.12

Unfunded Public Pension Liabilities per Chicagoan: $14,897

Data from the most recent audited financial statements of Illinois’ state and local government pension funds shows that the total unfunded liabilities for public employee pensions supported by the taxes of Chicago residents reached $14,897 per capita for fiscal year 2010. That is up from $10,...

01.04.12

2012 Consumer Tax Changes for Chicago Residents

Chicago residents will experience changes in a number of consumer taxes going into effect throughout 2012 as a result of policy changes at the City and County levels. The new consumer tax rates are presented in the exhibit below. Following the table are explanations for each of the consumer taxes...

12.30.11

Civic Federation Blog Provided Local Government Analysis and Recommendations for Fiscal Sustainability in 2011

 In 2011 the Civic Federation blog provided weekly context, information and perspective on government budgets and fiscal issues across Illinois.  Posts in 2011 focused on FY2012 local government budget analysis and the severe challenges facing local government pension funds, as well as a...

12.28.11

Cook County Health System Names Crown and Young to Board of New Foundation

The Cook County Health and Hospitals System appointed Lester Crown and Dr. Quentin Young to be directors of its newly created not-for-profit corporation, the Cook County Health Foundation. On May 26, 2011 the Health System’s Board of Directors approved the creation of the new foundation to...

12.21.11

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Pension Fund in Decline

In this latest entry in a blog post series on local government pension funds, the Civic Federation analyzes the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s pension fund. The MWRD is the only sanitary district in Illinois to have its own pension fund. All other sanitary...

12.14.11

Local Government Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Analysis Summary, Part II

Last week marked the end of the budget season for the nine local governments monitored by the Civic Federation. These governments include: the City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, DuPage County, City of Chicago, Cook County, Chicago Transit Authority, Forest Preserve District of...

12.09.11

Local Government Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Analysis Summary

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...