Since 2004, the City of Chicago has transacted three major long term asset leases worth over $3.5 billion. The Chicago Skyway (2004) – A 99-year lease with Cintra-Macquarie with a transaction value of $1.83 billion. Downtown…
This segment on the news program “Eight Forty-Eight” examines Chicago Public Schools’ proposed FY2010 budget and the District’s underfunded pension system. It features an interview with Civic Federation President Laurence Msall, who says…
This nightly news segment about Chicago Public Schools’ proposal to raise property taxes in order to close a $500 million budget gap features Civic Federation Senior Research Associate Genevieve Nolan, who says that the proposed increase…
With the Chicago Public School system facing massive teacher pension liabilities in the next several years, the Civic Federation notes that fixing the pension tsunami will require drastic steps that might include reopening teacher…
In this article about the Chicago Public Schools’ proposed FY2010 budget, the Civic Federation points out that the District will not be raising its property tax levy to the maximum amount allowed by law, but notes that CPS faces enormous…
Police, parks, streets, schools, community colleges, public hospitals, elections, courts, jails, mosquito abatement, sewage treatment…these are just a few of the services that, in Illinois, are provided by many different local governments…
More details are finally available on the FY2010 operating budget, and it would be difficult to describe it as balanced—even on paper. Depending on how you look at it, there is technically either a $157 million deficit or an $872 million…
Today the Civic Federation released its annual estimate of the full market value of taxable real estate in Chicago and…
CHICAGO – The full market value of real estate in Cook County reached approximately $656.5 billion in tax year 2007 according to an annual estimate released today by the Civic Federation. This total value represents a decrease of $9…
This report provides estimates of the total market value of real property in Cook County from 1998-2007 and shows how property value is spread among the City of Chicago, the northern and the southern suburbs. Tax year 2007 was the first…
