In April 2016, the Illinois Department of Revenue announced that it discovered a misallocation totaling an estimated $168 million in extra Personal Property Replacement Taxes (PPRT) distributed to 6,527 local government taxing entities throughout Illinois. This misallocation equals 6% of the total $2.8 billion PPRT payments made to local governments in tax years 2014 and 2015. Each local…
FY2016 Budget Season Summary December 3, 2015 marked the end of the budget season for the eight local governments monitored by the Civic Federation. These governments include: the City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, City of Chicago, Cook County, Chicago Transit Authority, Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and Chicago…
The Civic Federation supports the City Colleges tentative FY2016 budget totaling $695.6 million because it continues to minimize the financial burden placed on taxpayers by avoiding a property tax increase at a time when other local governments in Chicago are facing financial crises that will likely result in significant demands for increasing the City’s overall property tax burden. The budget…
UPDATE: New information from City Colleges of Chicago has been provided to the Civic Federation that makes adjustments to past years’ Statements of Net Position to comply with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statements 54 and 63. It will be included in the FY2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The District’s Unrestricted Fund Balance in FY2010, FY2011, and FY2012…
The Civic Federation regularly analyzes and comments on the budgets and audited financial statements of eight major local governments in northeastern Illinois: 1. City of Chicago; 2. Chicago Public Schools (CPS); 3. Cook County; 4. Chicago Transit Authority (CTA); 5. Forest Preserve District of Cook County (FPDCC); 6. City Colleges of Chicago; 7. Chicago Park District; and 8. Metropolitan Water…
The Civic Federation supports the City Colleges tentative FY2015 budget totaling $723.5 million for reflecting the District’s continued commitment to sound financial practices and prudent planning. The FY2015 tentative budget holds the property tax levy relatively flat for the fifth consecutive year, increases unrestricted operating funds by only 1.0% from FY2014 and continues to maintain a…
The following posts were among the most highly read on the Civic Federation blog in 2013 and represent some of the most closely followed local government issues this year: City Council’s Proposed Independent Budget Office, A Civic Federation Recommendation January 2, 2013 This blog details a proposal introduced in the Chicago City Council on December 12, 2012 to create an Office of Independent…
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 monitors. These governments include the City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the City of Chicago, Cook County, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, the…
Last week marked the end of the FY2014 budget season for the eight local governments monitored by the Civic Federation. These governments are the City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the City of Chicago, Cook County, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) and…
Over the next few weeks, many Chicago-area local governments will be releasing their proposed budgets for fiscal year 2014. In preparation for the upcoming budget releases, this blog will recap the Civic Federation’s significant observations from our analyses of local governments’ proposed FY2013 budgets. The governments studied by the Civic Federation include: the City Colleges of Chicago and…
