As the Civic Federation composes its forthcoming Status of Local Pensions Report, we have pensions on our minds. Here’s a quick round up of what’s happening with local pension funds in Chicago and across the State of Illinois, including status updates on commissions, results of pension obligation bonding and cost estimates of legislated benefit increases. City of Chicago In January of 2008 the…
This week the State of Illinois finalized one of its largest revenue sources enacted by General Assembly and approved by the Governor to fund the FY2010 budget, a $3.5 billion loan. By selling five-year pension obligation bonds, sometimes referred to as pension notes, the State freed up $3.5 billion to fund operations for FY2010 that would have otherwise been used to pay for the statutorily…
This segment on the “Chicago Tonight” news program examines Chicago’s ward-based waste collection system. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall was interviewed for the report. He says the City pays too much for the management and labor needed to run 50 individual garbage collection districts. Click the link above or visit the Civic Federation blog to watch the video.
Chicago Public Television Garbage Collection 12/17/2009 Online edition This segment on the “Chicago Tonight” news program examines Chicago’s ward-based waste collection system. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall was interviewed for the report. He says the City pays too much for the management and labor needed to run 50 individual garbage collection districts.
This article details some of the Chicago Park District’s upcoming reconstruction and capital investment projects. The Civic Federation points out that because the District does not issue a detailed project priority list and construction schedule, citizens and park visitors may not have a clear understanding of the District’s improvement plans.
This article discusses the Civic Federation’s analysis and support of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s $1.7 billion FY2010 budget. The Federation is quoted saying it supports the District’s budget because of its move to institute pension reforms and long-term planning practices.
This article examines the possible reform of the Chicago Public School Board’s $24,000-a-year receipt-free expense accounts to include a new system that would require Board members to submit receipts for expenditures.
This news article reports on the approval of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago FY2010 operating budget. The article mentions the Civic Federation’s support for the budget.
The redesign of the Civic Federation website in July has provided the public, government officials, and the media better access to the Federation’s analyses of government services in Illinois. The regularly-updated Civic Federation blog especially has provided a constant source of information on the issues that the Federation covers, including local budgets and pensions, taxes, privatization and…
Since its beginnings in July with the overhaul of the Civic Federation’s website, the IIFS blog has focused mostly on issues related to the Illinois budget, including Medicaid, debt, and the State pension system. These posts expand upon topics discussed in IIFS research publications and events in the news. Discussion about Illinois’ FY2010 budget and how the State was planning to bridge a two-…
