Chicago Public Schools

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2010 Cook County Property Tax Rates Are Out

Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office today released the 2010 Cook County Tax Rates Report. The report lists property tax rates for…

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Updated Report Explains Effect of TIF on Cook County Local Governments

Today the Civic Federation published an update to its primer The Cook County Property Tax Extension Process: A Primer on Levies…

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Fund Balance Variance at Chicago Public Schools

On Monday the Civic Federation released its analysis of Chicago Public Schools $5.9 billion FY2012 budget…

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Chicago Public Schools FY2012 Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation supports the Chicago Public Schools proposed $5.9 billion budget for FY2012, which is an increase of 1.5%, or $87.0 million, from the year-end estimates of FY2011. The proposed budget is a reasonable short-term plan to…

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Why Will the Chicago Public Schools’ Pension Contribution Spike in 2014?

In its fiscal year 2012 budget proposal, the Chicago Public Schools administration provided for the first time a three-year projection of its future financial situation on…

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Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund Accrued $5 Billion of Unfunded Liabilities in Ten Years

The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund accumulated nearly $5.4 billion in unfunded obligations over the past ten years. This was an increase of over 10,000%, from $5.1 million in FY2001 to $5.4 billion in FY2010. In three years alone, from…

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Fund Balance Policies of Chicago Area Governments

As explained previously in this blog a key indicator the Civic Federation uses to assess the financial health of local governments is the level of unreserved…

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Bond Restructuring Key Strategy Used to Close Budget Gaps

  The three largest municipal governments analyzed by the Civic Federation are the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the City of Chicago and Cook County. All three began their FY2011 budget processes projecting large budget shortfalls:…

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Savings Accounts of Chicago Area Governments

The Civic Federation analyzes the budgets of nine Chicago area local governments. One important indicator that the Federation utilizes to assess the financial health of these municipalities is their fund balance level. In particular, we…

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What Would it Mean to Shift More Illinois Teacher Pension Costs to School Districts?

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton has recently suggested that school districts should begin…