Government Efficiency and Transparency

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Civic Federation Supports FY2015 Forest Preserve District Budget

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Local Government Consolidation in Illinois: Small Steps in the Right Direction

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Annexation of Unincorporated Areas in Illinois

Unincorporated areas lie outside municipal boundaries. The residents and businesses located in these areas are usually provided municipal services such as police protection and building code enforcement by county government or special…

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Millennium Park built 'the Chicago Way'

This article details a decade of leases, deals and debts related to Millennium Park—a park originally envisioned as a $150 million open green space that would be no cost to taxpayers. The Civic Federation said the lack of financial…

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FY2014 Public Safety Spending in Cook County

Cook County is a home rule government with three primary responsibilities: collecting tax and fee revenue, protecting public health through the administration of a public health and hospital system and ensuring public safety and justice…

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Government Consolidation in Illinois: An Update

The consolidation and dissolution of local units of government has been the subject of much discussion recently in Illinois. The purpose of this blog post is to briefly summarize a recent report released by the Illinois Local Government…

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Forum on Municipal Fiscal Distress Looks at the Landscape After Detroit

The Civic Federation joined with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on April 23, 2014 to co-host a conference on ways that municipalities in Illinois can avoid or resolve fiscal…

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Illinois Supreme Court Recommends Pretrial Services Reform in Cook County

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Cook County Forest Preserve District’s New Conservation Plan Faces Challenges

In 2013 President Preckwinkle formed a blue-ribbon commission of local leaders to develop the Next Century Conservation Plan…

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Civic Federation Budget Recommendations for Chicago-Area Local Governments

Last week the Civic Federation marked the end of the FY2014 budget season with a blog that summarized the proposed budgets for the eight local governments the Federation…