United with other civic and citizens’ committees and organizations, the Civic Federation led an effort to reform disparities in the assessing of taxes associated with Chicago’s township governments. In a special legislative session in 1898, a bill was passed that abolished the office of township assessor in Chicago and created in counties with over 125,000 people a tax assessing board and board of review to oversee those assessors.

The Civic Federation worked to reform public employee pension funds. The Federation supported the creation of the Illinois Pension Laws Commission, and worked with City, County and State employees to follow the recommendations of the commission.

Through its intimate knowledge of municipal finance, the Federation was credited with saving Chicago’s governments from financial catastrophe during the Great Depression. The Civic Federation assisted financing unemployment relief, served on a committee to develop legislation to finance distressed governments, reduced the number of Chicago taxing units and successfully protested a reassessment of personal property, which would have added further to the difficulties of the governments and costs to the taxpayers.

The Federation successfully campaigned against a $20 million bond issue for the “West Park elevated pleasure highway.”

The Federation petitioned to the State Tax Commission against a reassessment of personal property for 1929, in opposition to the demands of tax strikers. A reassessment would have thrown Illinois’ tax coffers into chaos, and burdened taxpayers considerably.

In 1934 the Civic Federation realized one of the goals from its charter plan: to unite and consolidate the individual Chicago park districts. Up to this time, Chicago parks were governed by 22 districts, each with its own board of commissioners. While a measure to unite the parks failed in 1916, a later advocacy campaign assisted by then-governor Henry Horner was put to vote in the April 1934 primary election, where it found overwhelming support from the public.

The Civic Federation in 1939 distributed analyses of pending Cook County bond issues totaling $4 million in increases to voters, who defeated the bonds in June of that year.

In 1958, following the Civic Federation’s recommendation, Cook County implemented a property parcel numbering system, which helped determine the tax status of a parcel and facilitated the collection of property taxes. This new system supplanted the older method of organizing the million-plus properties in the County according to townships and subdivisions. This significant reform is still in operation today.

The Federation proposed structural reforms of the Chicago Park District to increase efficiency of its operations in a 1993 comprehensive analysis of the District’s form and function. Many of these recommendations were adopted by the Park District in its major reorganization effort in the mid-1990s.

The Civic Federation drafted and successfully advocated for historic reforms in the Cook County assessment appeals process. This involved the creation of a Task Force and publication of a report that was read in toto into House Bill 1465 in the spring of 1995 and became Public Act 89-126 later that year. The legislation streamlined property tax objection procedures, clarified the hearing process and eliminated the doctrine of constructive fraud, which had made it extremely difficult for taxpayers to successfully challenge Cook County property assessment valuations. The constitutionality of the law was upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court in People ex Rel. Devine v. Murphy in 1998. In that case, the Civic Federation filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the law. The Governmental Research Association recognized the significant work of the Federation on this issue in 1998 with a special achievement award.

The Federation coordinated a successful initiative to bring together seven major Chicago area governments in an agreement to jointly purchase prescription drugs for their employees. The governments included the City of Chicago, Cook County, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Park District, City Colleges of Chicago, and Chicago Housing Authority. The original intergovernmental agreement to jointly purchase prescription drugs has yielded millions of dollars in savings for the affected governments.

In 2003 the Civic Federation released its first-ever analysis of the State of Illinois budget. Prior to the report, the Federation’s analysis work had been focused on Chicago-region local governments.

The Civic Federation supported the FY2004 $52.4 billion State budget because it successfully eliminated a $5.4 billion deficit without any broad-based tax increases. The Federation reiterated its support for the pension obligation bond issue to reduce the State’s unfunded pension liabilities but issued several cautions as well.

On Sept. 19, 2005, the Civic Federation released a report titled The Effects of the “7% Cap” on Property Taxes Paid in the City of Chicago: Tax Year 2003. The report found that the "7% cap" resulted in an 11.5% total reduction in property tax owed by homestead exempt properties and a 4.5% increase for all other properties in Chicago, tax year 2003.

In 2007, the Civic Federation released a report on the effects of the Alternative General Homestead Exemption, finding that if the measure was not extended for another three years, property taxes in the Englewood neighborhood would rise by a median of 162%.

The Civic Federation in November 2007 published two pieces on Tax Increment Financing (TIF): an issue brief and a position statement.

The issue brief explained the impact of TIF on taxpayers and local governments in Illinois, while also reviewing the TIF designation process and recent empirical research on TIF and providing detailed information on selected City of Chicago TIF Districts.

The position statement clarified that while the Civic Federation supported Tax Increment Financing as an economic development tool, it also recommended that there be much greater transparency in the quantity and quality of TIF information provided to the public. The Federation also recommended including full financial information about TIF in all municipal budgets, making TIF information easily accessible on the internet and undertaking a comprehensive review of each TIF district every 10 years.

The Civic Federation issued a report in 2008 that reviewed the operations and finances of the Illinois International Port District (IIPD). In that report, the Federation called for the dissolution of the Illinois International Port District and the transfer of its operations to the City of Chicago. It found that the District had shifted its primary focus from port operations to the management of a golf course. Though the golf course brought in over half the District's annual revenue, the Civic Federation found no evidence that those revenues had been reinvested to improve port facilities or promote commerce.

Revisiting this topic in 2023, the Federation published a blog post demonstrating how the Port District has made strides toward improving the transparency of its operations.

In 2008, the Civic Federation released a joint report with Friends of the Forest Preserves calling for the creation of an independent board of commissioners for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. The report found that the existing arrangement wherein the Cook County Board of Commissioners also served as the governing board for the Forest Preserve District had resulted in conflicts of interest and neglect of the preserves.

In 2008, the Civic Federation announced it would launch a new institute focused on State of Illinois research thanks to a generous multi-year grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Institute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability (IIFS), which operated from 2008 to 2018, provided timely fiscal policy analysis to the State of Illinois with a focus on healthcare, Medicaid, infrastructure and debt, and made recommendations to State officials, the media and the public through education and digital outreach. Since the end of the grant, the Civic Federation has continued to produce annual research into the State of Illinois’ budget, pensions and more.

In 2009 the Cook County Board voted to partially roll back a one percentage point sales tax increase. The Civic Federation supported the rollback and had been a vocal opponent to the hike. The Federation found the tax unnecessary at a time when, it said, the County had made little attempt to implement cost savings or structural reforms despite severe economic uncertainty.

On June 30, 2009, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution asking the Civic Federation to conduct a review of the financial projections made by Chicago 2016 for the City’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Specifically, the resolution asked the Federation to deliver a report and recommendations to the City Council on Chicago’s proposed financing of the 2016 Games and any financial impact on taxpayers. The Civic Federation agreed to undertake an independent review of the City’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games with support from several foundations. The Federation’s final report found that the proposed operating budget for the Chicago 2016 Bid provided adequate protection for taxpayers. However, the development of the Olympic Village still exposed the City to continuing real estate risks that needed to be managed. In order to effectively carry out this plan and manage the risk associated with construction of the Village, the Civic Federation and our consultant L.E.K. Consulting recommended the following:

• The City Council must exercise its oversight role and require regular reporting on the status of the Games, including public disclosure of budgets, contracts, and construction updates to the City Council.
• The Olympic Bid’s proposed insurance coverage must be purchased to manage the risk to taxpayers that comes with guaranteeing delivery of the Games.
• The Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games must be led by a professional and experienced management team that understands and executes the proposed Chicago 2016 plan.

In mid-2009 the Civic Federation launched an upgraded website that included the addition of a weblog. The blog’s posts were written by Federation staff and focused on Civic Federation research, provided commentary on events in the news and highlighted other topics on government finance. The Federation’s weekly blog posts have since become a fundamental component of its research products, functioning as a timely resource for the media, government officials and the public and frequently garnering the highest visitor traffic of all the Federation’s web content.

In 2008 Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan proposed amending the Cook County Classification Ordinance to change the levels of assessment to 10% for residential, vacant and apartment properties, and 25% for commercial, industrial and non-profit properties. The Civic Federation supported this proposal as a means to bring greater transparency to the property tax system, while simplifying the classification system. Civic Federation President Laurence Msall testified to this effect at a meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners; the proposal passed in September of 2008. Mr. Msall also served on Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s Cook County Property Tax Classification Task Force, which was convened in order to study the potential effects of the ordinance change and advise the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Beginning in late 2009 and continuing through 2010, the Civic Federation produced a series of four Cook County property tax primers. It followed up the series with the release of its comprehensive position on Cook County’s property tax system, including its recommendations for reform.

Nov. 17, 2009 - Cook County Property Tax Appeals: A Primer on the Appeals Process with Comparative Data for 2000-2008

April 5, 2010 - The Cook County Property Assessment Process: A Primer on Assessment, Classification, Equalization, and Property Tax Exemptions

Oct. 5, 2010 - The Cook County Property Tax Extension Process: A Primer on Levies, Tax Caps, Tax Bills and the Effects of Tax Increment Financing Districts

Nov. 22, 2010 - The Cook County Property Tax System and Fundamental Principles of Taxation

Dec. 20, 2010 - Civic Federation Position on the Cook County Property Tax System: Recommendations for Reform

The Illinois General Assembly heard the Civic Federation’s call for a State of Illinois accountability and performance reporting system when Senator Dan Kotowski inserted a measure into the FY2010 budget implementation bill that would create a system by which State agencies would be required to continuously improve accountability and reporting, which would provide citizens with the most effective and efficient programs.

The Medicaid reform legislation the State of Illinois approved in December included many initiatives that were recommended by the Civic Federation in its Medicaid Issue Brief and in the Medicaid sections of reports over the previous three years. Those recommendations included instituting managed care programs for disabled and elderly Medicaid patients and global budgeting for the Medicaid program, which will ensure that the many departments running the Illinois Medicaid program work together toward program goals rather than protecting the line items in their own budgets.

A tax increment financing (TIF) transparency bill (Public Act 096-1335) passed by the Illinois legislature in May and signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn on July 27 includes a number of long-standing Civic Federation recommendations detailed in the Federation’s 2007 TIF report. The Civic Federation worked with Sen. Christine Radogno on crafting the legislation.

In December 2011, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law two bills that represented significant first steps toward pension reform in Illinois. Senate Bill 1946 reduced pension benefits for State and local public employees not yet hired, and Senate Bill 3538 did the same for police and fire employees. The Civic Federation had long recommended similar reforms to the state pension system.

Transit operators were expected to save $37 to $90 million per year following the repeal of the Seniors Ride Free subsidized transit program, which took effect when Governor Pat Quinn signed Public Act 096-1527 into law. The Civic Federation was one of the strongest and most consistent voices calling for the repeal of the Seniors Ride Free program for all but the lowest income seniors.

In 2011 the Civic Federation published its first ‘City Roadmap’ report: Recommendations for a Financially Sustainable City of Chicago. The purpose of the report was to provide the City of Chicago’s Mayor and City Council with detailed recommendations on ways to address the City’s serious financial challenges. The roadmap report has since become a staple of the Civic Federation’s research products and is released at the start of each new mayoral administration.

The Civic Federation has advocated for pension reform in various forms for decades. In 2013, in response to pension challenges that had come to a head after the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the Illinois General Assembly passed comprehensive pension reform legislation for four of its five pension funds that was intended to scale back the State’s massive pension obligations while preserving its retirement systems for current and future retirees. One year later, the Illinois General Assembly approved Senate Bill 1922, containing reforms and funding increases intended to stabilize the financial condition of the Chicago Municipal and Laborers’ pension funds. After both bills were signed into law, they were challenged as unconstitutional and the Illinois Supreme Court eventually struck down both laws. In January 2015, the Civic Federation submitted an amicus brief in an effort to preserve the pension reform laws.

Expanding the capacity, expertise and strategic orientation of its leadership, the Civic Federation founded its Board of Trustees in 2014. The inaugural group of Trustees included Robert J. Buford, Lew Collens, Lester Crown, Anne Dias-Griffin, Paul V. La Schiazza, Michael J. Sacks, Nancy Searle, Harrison I. Steans and Barbara Stewart. Since that time, the provided key insights to the Federation’s president on priorities and strategy, including the organization’s long-term financial viability.

The Civic Federation released Unincorporated Cook County: A Profile of Six Townships and Preliminary Recommendations to Facilitate Incorporation in 2014. The report analyzes unincorporated areas in Cook County and the potential costs to provide services to these areas. In 2016, the Federation published a follow-up report that built extensively on the 2014 report and included recommendations on how Cook County can improve general management of the unincorporated areas.

The Cook County Board approved changes in the operations of the County’s Inspector General’s Office. Some of those changes had been recommended by the Civic Federation, such as efforts to improve public understanding of the Office’s reports. For example, the Civic Federation recommended that agencies under scrutiny be provided with advance copies of the findings of audit-like investigations and given the opportunity to submit written responses to be included in the Inspector General’s final published report.