Property tax rates nearly double since 2007 as residents leave Harvey, Illinois

By Vincent Caruso

02/11/2019

Declining home values and a shrinking tax base have created a bigger property tax burden for Harvey, Illinois, homeowners. For their higher taxes, residents get corruption, debt and fewer services.

TAGS: harvey, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, property taxes, taxes

Term limits popular with local voters, but Illinois state lawmakers try to blunt reforms

By Vincent Caruso

01/02/2019

Since 2014 alone, voters in 11 suburban Cook County communities approved term limits on elected leaders. A bill in the Illinois General Assembly seeks to curb those reforms.

TAGS: Chris Welch, harvey, Sam McCann, term limits

Crowding out: Chicago pension fund demands intercept of state grant money

By Adam Schuster

09/18/2018

The Chicago firefighters pension fund has filed claims with the Illinois comptroller for $3.3 million in shorted pension contributions, an action that could worsen city finances and service delivery.

TAGS: 401(k), Chicago, harvey, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions

Moody’s: Illinois pension debt-to-revenue ratio hits all-time high for any state

By Adam Schuster

08/31/2018

According to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service, Illinois’ unfunded pension liabilities equaled 601 percent of state revenues in 2017, a U.S. record.

TAGS: bonds, credit rating, debt, employment, harvey, Moody's Investor Service, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, peoria, taxes

Illinois’ Gordian knot: Pensions, insolvency and the ‘b word’

By Austin Berg

08/30/2018

If lawmakers continue to balk at building the tools necessary to reform pensions, bankruptcy will be the only way out for communities across the state.

TAGS: bankruptcy, harvey, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, peoria

Settlement agreement in Harvey foreshadows pension crisis in Illinois

By Adam Schuster, Joe Tabor

07/30/2018

An agreement to end a dispute between the city of Harvey and two public safety pension funds provides a glimpse at the impending fiscal crises stemming from government pensions across the state.

TAGS: harvey, municipal pensions, pensions, property taxes, taxes

Harvey revenue agreement highlights need for pension reform – or municipal bankruptcy

By Joe Tabor

06/08/2018

Illinois’ pension laws are forcing the city of Harvey to pay its creditors through short-term negotiated agreements just to meet payroll.

TAGS: bankruptcy, corruption, harvey, municipal pensions, pensions

Rhode Island city offers dire warning to Illinois municipalities struggling with pension debt

By Joe Tabor

06/06/2018

Central Falls, Rhode Island, filed for bankruptcy largely because of pension debt. If Illinois municipalities can’t meet or lower their pension obligations, they too could face fiscal collapse.

TAGS: bankruptcy, harvey, municipal pensions, pensions, Spending

Illinois Forward: A 5-year plan for balanced budgets, declining debt and tax relief

The years 2010 through 2019 will go down in Illinois history as a decade of public policy failure and economic decline. High fixed costs for pensions and government worker health care have prevented the state from balancing its budget in any year since 2001. Since the Great Recession in 2008, the state’s fiscal imbalance has...

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Illinois Forward: A 5-year plan for balanced budgets, declining debt and tax relief

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Ifeoma Nkemdi

Policy lessons from Illinois’ exodus of people and money

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students