How Much Are State Pension Payments Worth to Illinois School Districts?
Release: 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. Because of this, it is difficult to determine how much money these pension payments are worth to individual districts. CTBA has created per-district estimates for both normal cost (the payment that covers benefits being earned by current employees) and legacy cost (the debt service payment to make up for previous years' underfunding).
The Cost of a Two-Year Property Tax Freeze For Illinois Schools: Up to $830 Million
Release: 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. But such a freeze, without provision for replacement revenue from the state, would effectively be a massive funding cut for K-12 education in Illinois.
The Potential Harm to Downstate Schools If the Governor Vetoes SB1
Release: June 20, 2017
The Evidence-Based Funding for Student Success Act, or Senate Bill (SB) 1, was approved by the Illinois General Assembly on June 11, 2017. SB1 would significantly reform the how Illinois funds public schools by replacing an outdated, one-size-fits-all formula by calculating a unique adequacy level for each school district in the state, based on evidence-based best practices and demographics.
Good Money After Bad: "Transferability" Would Make EDGE Tax Credits Even More Dubious Economic Policy
Release: May 15, 2017
The Economic Development for a Growing Economy ("EDGE") Tax Credit program has released more than $1.6 billion in credits to companies promising to create or retain jobs in Illinois since its creation in 1999. But the evidence that tax incentive programs like EDGE produce real economic growth is limited, and EDGE credits in particular have been abused by companies simply moving jobs from one part of the state to another, as found by a 2015 Chicago Tribune investigation.
Turnaround Fact Sheet #1: Workers' Compensation
Release: March 16, 2017
This is the first in a series of CTBA Fact Sheets reviewing the proposals in Governor Bruce Rauner's "Turnaround Agenda," which the Governor's office has made a precondition of signing any state budget.