Civic Federation Blog Archive: January 2012

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.

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

01.11.12

Unfunded Public Pension Liabilities per Chicagoan: $14,896

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 $14,896 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...