The Civic Federation offers qualified support for Cook County’s FY2007 Budget based on the County’s plan to meet its 502 million dollar budget deficit with substantial spending cuts rather than tax increases. The Civic Federation opposes,…
Based on data from its new, comprehensive analysis of the "7 percent cap", the Civic Federation maintains its support for extending the property tax exemption through tax years 2006-2008 at its current maximum exemption level of twenty…
This report examines trends in expenditures, revenues, fund balance, personnel, and long-term debt for 1099 local governments in Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, and Will counties. It includes aggregate data on counties, forest preserve…
This report compares property tax rates in selected communities around metropolitan Chicago, and finds that the effective rate for most communities studied fell between 1999 and 2004.
This report provides estimates of the total market value of real property in Cook County from 1995-2004 and shows how property value is spread among the City of Chicago, the northern and the southern suburbs. In 2004, the value of property…
The Civic Federation praised the Illinois General Assembly for voting to eliminate the Suburban Cook County Tuberculosis Sanitarium District, and celebrated the end of a 3-year campaign to abolish the unnecessary unit of government.
The Civic Federation supports the extension of the "7%" property tax cap for an additional three years, but does not support raising the EAV exemption maximum from $20,000 to $60,000.
This report provides a trend analysis of indicators that measure the financial health and performance of ten major local government pension funds from 1997 to 2004. It finds a combined $14.4 billion in unfunded liabilities for the ten…
The Civic Federation supports Assessor Houlihan's proposal to reduce Class 3 assessment levels from 26% to 20% of market value over three years, but cautions that this reduction is likely to have only a very modest effect on the supply of…
This issue brief provides a "plain English" description of how GASB 43 and 45 will require government financial reporting on non-pension post-employment benefits (OPEB). It is illustrated with preliminary estimates of unfunded OPEB…
