The Civic Federation recently released its analysis of the CTA’s FY2017 Budget. The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s FY2017 operating budget of $1.52 billion because it holds base fares flat and continues to make strategic capital investments despite ongoing state funding uncertainty. As part the Civic Federation’s annual analysis of the CTA budget, the Federation uses two measures to assess CTA’s productivity over time: labor cost per actual unlinked passenger trip…
The Civic Federation supports the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s FY2017 Tentative budget of $1.13 billion because the District continues to demonstrate a sensible and proactive approach to meeting its financial challenges. As mentioned in the full report, the FY2017 Tentative budget is 9.0% less than the FY2016 adjusted budget of $1.24 billion, which is due to the variance that often occurs between budget years, reflecting the District’s multi-year capital projects. The FY2017…
Click here to read the full report. The Civic Federation supports the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s proposed FY2017 budget of $192.4 million because it includes measures to reduce costs and generate additional revenue in order to offset rising personnel costs and a reduction in the Personal Property Replacement Tax (PPRT). The District’s FY2017 budget proposes management efficiencies and evidence-based fee changes for the use of Forest Preserve amenities to balance out increased…
The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s proposed FY2017 operating budget of $1.52 billion because the budget holds base fares flat and continues to make strategic capital investments despite ongoing state funding uncertainty. As detailed in the report, the FY2017 budget does not rely on one-time revenue sources or service cuts despite declining fare revenue and includes a new transit tax increment financing (TIF) district to increase local capital funding for transit…
The Civic Federation recently released its analysis of the City Colleges of Chicago FY2017 Tentative Annual Operating Budget. This blog examines City Colleges of Chicago tuition rate changes for in-district, out-of-district and out-of-state tuition rates per semester hour over a ten year period. This blog also compares City Colleges of Chicago in-district tuition rates with the in-district rates of 10 selected regional community colleges in northeastern Illinois. City Colleges Tuition Rates…
The Civic Federation supports the City Colleges of Chicago’s proposed FY2017 operating budget. The $523.7-million budget is a reasonable plan given the unprecedented uncertainty surrounding funding from the State of Illinois as it enters a second year without enacting a comprehensive balanced state budget. In FY2017 the District is not planning to increase its property tax levy or tuition rates to make up for a decline in State and local revenues. Instead, City Colleges will again rely on…
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 government that received wrongful PPRT funding will need to refund the State beginning in 2017. Overview of…
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 Park District. Four of the seven governments that levy property taxes held their levies relatively…
The Civic Federation Supports the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s tentative budget of $1.21 billion for being reasonable and balanced while maintaining ample reserves and for its fiscal responsibility in properly funding pensions and prefunding retiree health benefits. The FY2016 budget includes the maximum property tax increase allowed under state law for the third year in a row, with the total levy increasing by 3.3%, or $18.5 million, to $577.8 million. The Civic Federation is…
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) recently released its FY2016 proposed budget. While the Civic Federation traditionally analyzes features common to all local government budgets, our analyses of the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) budgets include a review of the Authority’s productivity measurement data. The Civic Federation uses expenditures, ridership and miles traveled data provided by the CTA to gain insight into changes in productivity. The Civic Federation uses two measures to assess…
