08.18.21
The Civic Federation hosted a series of criminal justice reform panel discussions as part of the annual conference of the Governmental Research Association in July. Here we highlight the key takeaways from discussions on two topics currently at the...
08.13.21
The State of Illinois received some good fiscal news this summer: two rating agencies upgraded the State’s credit ratings and a third revised its outlook to positive. The credit upgrades were the first in in two decades, reversing years of negative news.
The State of Illinois currently...
08.05.21
CPS enrollment has been declining steadily for at least the past decade while personnel spending has increased dramatically. In a recent analysis of the Chicago Public Schools proposed FY2022 budget , the Civic Federation raised concerns over...
07.29.21
The fiscal year 2022 budget for the State of Illinois and the process that created it showed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the beginnings of a recovery within the State economy. Unlike the FY2021 budget, the spending plan for FY2022 does not rely on federal borrowing and...
07.28.21
07.01.21
On June 24, 2021, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle issued a preliminary budget forecast for fiscal year 2022 . The fiscal year begins December 1, 2021 and ends November 30...
06.25.21
Event lineup includes tributes from government, business and civic luminaries
On Tuesday, June 29, the Civic Federation will celebrate the outstanding civic and philanthropic contributions of Ariel Investments and Maurice Smith, President and CEO of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC...
06.18.21
The Illinois General Assembly recently passed major revisions to its initial 2019 adult-use cannabis law. The revisions target an important provision of the original law that was meant to ensure access by disadvantaged communities to the growing and lucrative cannabis industry....
06.11.21
On April 21, 2021, the City of Chicago adopted Substitute Ordinance 2020-5902 , which requires the Department of Finance to publish monthly...
05.18.21
The Civic Federation opposes legislation under consideration by the Illinois General Assembly that would create a 21-member elected Chicago School Board. The proposal would establish a governing board that would: be too large to be effective; lead to expensive and divisive political campaigns...
