Local Government Budgets
Released February 15, 2018
Governor Bruce Rauner introduced his proposed fiscal year 2019 budget on February 14.
Released November 14, 2017
On October 11, 2017, the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to repeal a penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages.
Released June 23, 2017
Governor Bruce Rauner has made a property tax freeze a centerpiece of his demands for a full state budget, and the Illinois Senate passed a bill (SB484) that would enact a two-year freeze in May.
Released June 23, 2017
Every school district in Illinois except for the Chicago Public Schools has its teacher pension payments made by the state as a consolidated payment to the Teachers Retirement System.
Released January 13, 2017
In 2014, CTBA released a report showing that the Chicago Housing Authority had accumulated over $400 million in reserves, in part by issuing an average of 13,000 fewer housing vouchers per year than the Authority was funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to do.
Released May 14, 2015
This Issue Brief is an update to a 2007 Brief, and provides an overview of who pays property taxes in Illinois, the steps in the property tax cycle, and what property tax revenue is used for.
Released July 30, 2014
The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) participates in the federal program “Moving to Work,” which frees it from much of the oversight that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development usually exercises over public housing agencies. Through the MTW program, the CHA can pool federal funding for public housing, capital construction, and housing vouchers into one General Fund and spend money from that fund at its discretion. Normally, such federal funding has to be kept in segregated accounts by program. Because of the financial flexibility the MTW gives the CHA, the agency has been able to divert money intended for the issuance of housing vouchers to other uses.
CTBA’s report, A Fiscal Review of the Chicago Housing Authority, found that over the last five years in particular, the CHA’s reserve funds have grown significantly. During that same five-year period, the CHA had an average annual surplus of $107 million.
Released September 24, 2007
This Report analyzes the basic public services Cook County provides and the revenue sources that fund them. The Report also examines the Cook County fiscal system to determine whether it has the ability to fund and sustain the level of public services it currently provides.
Released October 12, 2006
This Report examines the crisis conditions of affordable housing in Chicago and offers a way forward.
Released August 27, 2013
Despite an increase in spending, Chicago Public Schools is proposing to eliminate 1,520 instruction positions and draw down reserves to dangerous levels in its FY2014 proposed budget.