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Civic Federation Blog Archive: October 2009
10.30.09
Accelerated Cook County Public Hearing Schedule Hampers a Transparent Budget Process for FY2010
Last week Cook County released its FY2010 budget and will conclude its public hearing schedule nine business days after the budget’s release. At a minimum, the public should be afforded a review period of ten working days before public testimony is heard, not as a conclusion to the hearing...
10.29.09
Illinois General Assembly Passes Cook County Veto Override Measure
The Illinois Senate voted today to approve House Bill 4625, which means both houses of the Illinois General Assembly have now approved the same bill to reduce the veto override threshold for the Cook County Board of Commissioners to the three-fifths level common to most governments. The number of...
10.28.09
Weathering the Financial Storm in DuPage County
The Civic Federation released its analysis of the FY2010 DuPage County budget yesterday. In it the Federation announced its support for the County’s proposed financial plan due in large part to the County’s ability to maintain operation of its core programs while reducing its...
10.21.09
Will my property tax bill go up or down?
The property tax rates released yesterday by the Cook County Clerk show that the composite tax rates in the City of Chicago and many municipalities declined slightly from the previous year. However, many property owners will still see higher property tax bills arriving in the mail soon. The Cook...
10.15.09
UPDATE: Cook County Veto Override Legislation
The Illinois House of Representatives voted on October 14, 2009 to reduce the number of votes required to override a veto by the Cook County Board President from an extraordinary four-fifths—or 14 of 17 commissioners—to three-fifths or 11. House Bill 4625, introduced by...
10.14.09
CTA Enhances Transparency of its Procurement Activities with an Online Database
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) recently implemented a vendor database that allows members of the public to search for vendor and contract information on the CTA website. The database is intended to improve the transparency of the CTA’s procurement activities by making data about...
10.07.09
Of the People, For the People, By the People
On Monday September 28, 2009 the Civic Federation attended the second of three public hearings held by DuPage County regarding its recently-released FY2010 financial plan. This was the first year that the County has held formal, separate public hearings throughout DuPage on its proposed budget....
10.06.09
Preserving the Forest Preserve
The Civic Federation sent a letter today to the Board of Forest Preserve Commissioners, which is also the Cook County Board of Commissioners, urging them to reject a request by the Village of Hinsdale for 30 acres of Forest Preserve District land to create a village park. The Board is scheduled to...