Government Budgets

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Civic Federation Commends County Board Vote to Reduce Hospital Administrative Costs

CHICAGO – As the Cook County Board continues its debate on the proposed $3 billion budget for FY 2005, the Civic Federation applauds the Board for its vote to consolidate the public relations, human resources and finance departments of the…

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Status of Local Pension Funding 2002: An Evaluation of Nine Local Pension Funds within Cook County

This report provides a 6-year trend analysis of indicators that measure the financial health and performance of 9 major local government pension funds from 1997 to 2002.

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Assessor Houlihan's Neighborhood Preservation Homeowner's Exemption

The Civic Federation offered qualified support for Cook County Assessor Houlihan's proposal to limit homestead assessment increases to 7% annually. The proposal is contained in Amendment #2 to Senate Bill 1498, and would replace the…

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District FY2004 Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation commended the MWRD for its FY2004 budget of $848.3 million because the District reduced its property tax levy by $2.7 million from the tentative FY2004 budget proposal, it drew down its Corporate Fund balance from a…

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Civic Federation Commends Metropolitan Water Reclamation District for Decreasing Proposed Property Tax Levy

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A Snapshot of Regional Finance in Northeastern Illinois 1997-2000

This report presents a macro-level overview of expenditure, revenue, debt and personnel trends of 1,043 governments in Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, and Will Counties. It includes FY1997 and FY2000 comparative information for…

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Cook County FY2004 Proposed Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation opposed the County’s $2.99 billion FY2004 budget because it does not reduce operational expenditures or implement increased efficiencies and It is balanced by means of two new and unnecessary revenue enhancements: an…

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Forest Preserve District of Cook County FY2004 Proposed Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation was disappointed in the Forest Preserve District’s FY2004 operating budget of $140.8 million for several reasons. There was insufficient time--only 4 working days--permitted this year for public review of the budget…

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Assessor Houlihan's Neighborhood Preservation Homeowner's Exemption

The Civic Federation was unable to support this proposal because a lack of both available information and formal legislative language to which we could refer prevented us from fully analyzing the consequences of this property tax exemption.

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Chicago Park District FY2004 Proposed Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation supported the Chicago Park District's $351 million FY2004 budget because of the District's history of implementing management efficiencies and cost cutting measures and the progress it has made in shifting revenues…