Forest Preserve District of Cook County

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Civic Federation and Friends of the Forest Preserves Call for the Creation of a Separate Board for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County

The Civic Federation and Friends of the Forest Preserves support the creation of a separate elected Board of Commissioners to govern the Forest Preserve District of Cook County…

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Separate so they can be Equal: The Case for Creating a Separate Board of Commissioners for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County

On February 2, 2010 Illinois will hold its primary election. The position of Cook County Board President and all Cook County Commissioner seats are on the ballot. Many issues pertaining to Cook County government have been debated during…

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Civic Federation Blog Provides Rapid Response Analysis

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…

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Civic Federation 2010 Legislative Priorities

The Civic Federation's legislative priorities for 2010 include public pension reform, requiring state government to develop and implement performance measurement and a capital improvement plan, the dissolving of the Illinois International…

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Fitch Ratings Supports Separate Governing Board for Cook County Forest Preserve District

In September Fitch Ratings announced an upgrade of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s outstanding unlimited tax general obligation bonds totaling $115 million…

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Forest Preserve District of Cook County FY2010 Proposed Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation supports the FY2010 Forest Preserve District of Cook County budget of $198.2 million because the District will reduce its property tax levy by $1.1 million and use a portion of its budget reserve funds, rather than…

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Preserving the Forest Preserve

The Civic Federation sent a letter today to the Board of Forest Preserve Commissioners, which is also the Cook County Board of Commissioners, urging them to reject a request by the Village of Hinsdale for 30 acres of Forest Preserve…

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Tweeting Towards Transparency (Part 2)

August 14, 2009’s Civic Federation blog post, “Tweeting Towards Transparency (Part 1),” discussed how the Cook County Board’s Twitter account has…

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Funding Culture: The Report of the Task Force on the Public Funding of Cultural Institutions in Northeastern Illinois

This report analyzes the public funding for 12 major cultural institutions in Cook County that receive property tax-based funding from the Chicago Park District or the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. It makes recommendations for…

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Status of Local Pension Funding Fiscal Year 2007: An Evaluation of Ten Local Government Employee Pension Funds in Cook County

This report provides a trend analysis of indicators that measure the financial health and performance of ten major local government pension funds from 1998 to 2007, the most recent year for which audited data are available. It finds that…