Employee and Retiree Health Care (OPEB)

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State Pension Liabilities Rise Due to Lower Expected Investment Returns

  After experiencing several years of poor market conditions, three of the five Illinois State employee retirement funds have reduced their expected rate of return on investments. This rate, also known as the discount rate, is used to…

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City of Chicago FY2011 Proposed Budget: Analysis and Recommendations

The Civic Federation opposes the proposed FY2011 City of Chicago budget of nearly $6.2 billion because it does not effectively address the structural deficit and relies too heavily on asset lease reserve funds and debt restructuring to…

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Civic Federation: FY2011 Chicago Budget Does Not Address City's Structural Deficit

The Civic Federation announced today that it opposes the $6.2 billion FY2011 City of Chicago budget because it does not do enough to address the City’s structural deficit. Instead it relies upon long-term asset lease funds and other non-…

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Candidate Forum: Cook County Board President

 This segment of the “Chicago Tonight” news program features a roundtable discussion with the three candidates for Cook County Board President. The candidates discuss recommendations made by the Civic Federation’s…

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Cook County Modernization Report

The purpose of the Cook County Modernization Report is to provide leaders of the County with ideas for reshaping and refining County government that will improve service delivery to residents while reducing wasteful spending and decreasing…

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Cost-Cutting Proposals on Tap for MWRD – Part II

Last week the Civic Federation blogged about the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s reaction to its estimated $24 million…

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Cost-Cutting Proposals On Tap for MWRD – Part I

  The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District recently announced that it is facing a $24 million budget deficit for FY2011. After hearing a report of the FY2011…

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Cloudy Mid-Year Financials for MWRD May Mean Choppy Waters Ahead

Last week the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board of Commissioners held a public…

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Illinois Lawmakers Propose $1.3 Billion in State Budget Cuts

As the General Assembly nears the final days of this year’s regular session with no FY2011 budget in sight, a group of lawmakers is attempting to advance the negotiations by…

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Update on Governor’s Proposal to Reduce State’s Costs for Retiree Healthcare

Governor Pat Quinn and his Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) appear to have different estimates of how much the State would save under the Governor’s proposal to require all state retirees to pay a share of their health…