Chicago's annual financial report overdue again!

Over the long holiday weekend, the Illinois legislature finally passed budget measures, including significant tax hikes. The bills were vetoed by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, and the Illinois Senate quickly (and barely) overrode the veto. Matters now reside in the Illinois House, where an override vote is expected later this week.

Some have questioned how well the members of the Illinois legislature really read and/or understood the 638 pages of text in this legislation. However, the vote arrived without something else pretty darn important – the annual financial report for the City of Chicago.

Legally, the City of Chicago is required to produce its annual report within six months of the end of the fiscal year (December 31). But June 30 came and went without a published report. Last year, the same thing happened, and it took a few more days to find out that the city had included a massive change arising from changing its pension assumptions.

Because of a new accounting rule, Chicago had to report its pension debt on its balance sheet. As a result, the city's reported pension debt grew from $8.6 billion in 2014 to $33.8 billion in 2015--a 293 percent increase! The city's taxpayer burden--the amount each taxpayer would have to pay for the city to be debt-free--grew to a staggering $44,000.

This year, we are in a similar fog of uncertainty, but passing state spending legislation nonetheless.
Energized and saddened by recent events, and in the spirit of the mission undertaken by The Blues Brothers, two staffers from Truth in Accounting made a visit to City Hall. See what happened in this video.