Chicago officials are reviewing the state of the city’s finances in preparation for a months-long budgeting process – and the numbers aren’t pretty. The city of Chicago released today its 2013 Annual Financial Analysis. As this document reveals, growing debt payments and unfunded pension liabilities continue to push the city’s budget into the red. As this...
Illinois can’t pay its bills. Lawmakers continue to eat away at the Illinois family budget with higher taxes. And the state refuses to stop ballooning pension payments from crowding out core government services. Yet Gov. Pat Quinn announced that Illinois will invest $54.8 million 27 private colleges and universities in the Chicago area. Some of this spending...
Chicago officials are reviewing the state of the city’s finances in preparation for a months-long budgeting process – and the numbers aren’t pretty. The city of Chicago released today its 2013 Annual Financial Analysis. As this document reveals, growing debt payments and unfunded pension liabilities continue to push the city’s budget into the red. As this...
In what’s become a torrent of bad news regarding Illinois’ fiscal health, Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Chicago Public Schools’ $6.3 billion general obligation debt one notch. The credit rating agency’s outlook remains negative, and CPS debt is now just four levels above junk bond status. The CPS ranking drop to A3 from A2 follows recent downgrades...
When Chicago Public Schools laid off more than 2,000 employees – including 1,036 teachers – last week, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis skewered Mayor Rahm Emanuel for not supporting tax-increasing policies that she claims would bring additional revenue to the city. She said: “It is equally shameful that as CPS slashes school budgets, they have not offered one...
North Carolina lawmakers reached an agreement last week to overhaul the state’s tax environment. The state made a lot of changes to its tax structure, but the biggest reforms included reducing North Carolina’s corporate income tax rate and exchanging the state’s progressive tax structure in favor of a flat tax. Gov. Pat McCrory provided the...
Earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune published an editorial sounding the alarm on “the next Illinois tax hike” – a progressive tax. While many in the state have come to recognize this upcoming tax fight, others, such as Jan Goldberg of Riverside, Ill., refuse to admit the truth. In a recent letter to the editor titled “Benefits of a...
Pension costs are already unraveling the state’s finances. Now it’s the city of Chicago’s turn. The city’s out-of-control pension liabilities and “accelerating budget pressures associated with those liabilities” has resulted in another credit downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service. The national credit rating agency downgraded the city’s nearly $8 billion in general obligation bonds to A3...
It’s official: the city of Detroit is bankrupt. The Detroit News reported that the city filed a petition for bankruptcy protection this afternoon. The city is in a severe economic crisis and simply lacks the ability to raise sufficient taxes to pay its mounting bills. The city’s population fell more than 26% from 2000 to 2012 and...
It’s no secret to drivers in the Greater Chicago area that gas prices are cheaper across state lines. Illinoisans who live or work near bordering states often drive the extra few miles out of their way to take advantage of cheaper gas in Wisconsin and Indiana. So how do gas prices – and taxes –...
At a time when the state of Illinois has more than $100 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, more than $6 billion in unpaid bills and is coming off of its 13th credit downgrade since 2009, it might shock Illinoisans to hear that Gov. Quinn is one of the highest-paid governors in the country. Gov. Pat Quinn’s salary is $177,412. According...
by Ben VanMetre Illinois is notorious for ignoring its financial obligations and racking up billions in unpaid bills. When it sits on those unpaid bills long enough, the state has to pay a penalty. Illinois is required by law to pay interest of 1 percent a month on its unpaid bills, also called invoices, when they become...
Judges’ contributions to the Judges’ Retirement System, or JRS, have gone up by 52 percent since 1998. During the same time period, taxpayer contributions to judges’ retirements increased by 306 percent. In 2012 alone, Illinois taxpayers contributed $47 million more to JRS than judges did. And the disparity between taxpayers and employee contributions is projected...