The General Assembly approved and Governor Pritzker signed an approximately $48.7 billion capital budget on June 17, 2021. [1]

Unlike the State’s annual General Funds budget, which is intended to cover only the cost of operations for the current...

On August 24, 2021, Governor Pritzker signed legislation that will create a Higher Education Evidence-Based...

The Civic Federation hosted a series of criminal justice reform panel discussions as part of the annual conference of the Governmental Research Association in July. Here we highlight the key takeaways from discussions on two topics currently at the...

The State of Illinois received some good fiscal news this summer: two rating agencies upgraded the State’s credit ratings and a third revised its outlook to positive. The credit upgrades were the first in in two decades, reversing years of negative news.

The State of Illinois currently...

CPS enrollment has been declining steadily for at least the past decade while personnel spending has increased dramatically. In a recent analysis of the Chicago Public Schools proposed FY2022 budget , the Civic Federation raised concerns over...

The fiscal year 2022 budget for the State of Illinois and the process that created it showed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the beginnings of a recovery within the State economy. Unlike the FY2021 budget, the spending plan for FY2022 does not rely on federal borrowing and...

Vehicular hijacking, commonly referred to as carjacking, has become a point of great concern among City and State officials due to an increase in incidents since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in carjackings follows a national trend, although overall crime in Chicago and...

The Civic Federation recently released its annual Effective Property Tax Rates report , which examines two- and ten-year trends in estimated effective tax rates for residential, commercial and industrial property in selected...

In January 2021, Cook County issued $499.8 million in general obligation and revenue bonds.

A total of $330.5 million was issued by the County in Series 2021A general obligation refunding bonds. These bonds will be used to refund the County’s outstanding Series 2010A and 2010G bonds [1...

Honoring Dr. Ngozi Ezike and Dr. Allison Arwady

On Wednesday, February 10, 2021 the Motorola Solutions Foundation and the Civic Federation honored the outstanding public service contributions of Dr. Ngozi Ezike and Dr. Allison Arwady. Dr. Ezike serves as the Director of the Illinois...

Despite large revenue losses associated with the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, Cook County’s preliminary 2020 budget results for the fiscal year that ended on November 30, 2020 show a positive year-end balance. Based on the...

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) released a $3.4 billion, five year FY2021-FY2025 capital plan in October 2020. The CTA prepares a multi-year, comprehensive capital improvement plan (CIP)...

Annually the Civic Federation releases a report on consumer taxes in the City of Chicago. Consumer taxes are tied to the use or consumption of certain goods and services that can be charged directly to consumers through retail transactions or passed onto consumers by businesses or governments....

The following are excerpts or summaries of the five most read posts presented on the Civic Federation’s blog in 2020* in chronological order. The posts examine issues related to local taxes and budgets and the State of Illinois’ proposal for...

Cook County government has historically kept its property tax levy relatively flat, especially when compared to the other largest government bodies in Cook County including the City of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools, both of which have...