The Civic Federation and IIFS blogs have written extensively about reductions to assumed rates of return on investment by State and some local public pension plans over the last several years. These changes are part of a nationwide trend,…
The following posts were among the most highly read on the Civic Federation blog in 2014 and represent some of the most closely followed local government issues this year:…
The Civic Federation supports the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s tentative budget of $1.3 billion and praises the organization’s continued use of long-term financial planning to guide its operations and future projects. …
The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Park District’s proposed FY2015 operating budget of $448.6 million that accommodates increased employer pension contributions mandated by the District’s 2014 pension reform legislation while…
The Civic Federation supports the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s FY2015 proposed $187.4 million budget for holding the property tax levy relatively flat and minimizing the use of one-time resources. This balanced budget is very…
The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) proposed FY2015 budget of nearly $1.4 billion. The budget represents an improved level of fiscal stability made possible by the CTA’s efforts in past years to secure its…
The provisions of Public Act 98-0622 will not go into effect until January 1, 2015, but the changes to Chicago Park District employee and retiree pension benefit levels contained in the legislation have already reduced the fund’s unfunded…
Chicago-area public employee pension funding levels continued to decline in FY2012, with total unfunded liabilities for the ten funds analyzed rising to $37.2 billion from $32.0 billion in FY2011. On average, the ten funds analyzed had an…
The most basic question about a pension fund is whether its assets are sufficient to cover total liabilities incurred. In this blog post, we examine the aggregate pension liabilities and Other Post…
