City of Chicago

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Selected Consumer Taxes in the City of Chicago: December 2009

This brief provides an updated compilation of selected consumer taxes, including rates and descriptions, in effect in the City of Chicago on December 1, 2009.  It includes such taxes as the sales tax, gas tax, amusement tax, lease tax…

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Civic Federation 2010 Legislative Priorities

The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2010 include public pension reform, requiring state government to develop and implement performance measurement and a capital improvement plan, the dissolving of the Illinois International…

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Protecting Proceeds From Long-Term Asset Leases

In two previous blog posts [here and…

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The “Long” and “Short” of City Asset Deals

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City of Chicago FY2010 Proposed Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation opposes the FY2010 City of Chicago budget of $6.14 billion because it is unsustainable and relies too heavily on one-time reserve funds to close a $520.0 million budget deficit. The proposed drastic draw down of long-…

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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…

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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…

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Chicagoans, can you spare $10,037?

Data from the most recent audited financial statements of Illinois’ state and local government pension funds shows that the total unfunded liabilities for pensions supported by the taxes of Chicago residents reached $10,037 per capita for…

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Chicago TIF Still Cloudy, Even Under Sunshine Ordinance

One of the Civic Federation’s ongoing concerns has been transparency in the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) by the City of Chicago and State of Illinois. Although the Civic Federation supports the use of TIF as municipal economic…

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Comparing Property Tax Burdens Across Communities

This week the Civic Federation released its annual Effective Property Tax Rates report. The report…