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The Civic Federation’s Annual Civic Awards celebrate the extraordinary contributions of Chicago-area civic leaders and institutions. The 2026 theme, Everything is Connected, reflects the understanding that Illinois governments—state, city, county, and local municipalities—are deeply interdependent. Their tax systems, budgeting practices, and fiscal decisions all impact and ripple across one another, often without coordination or shared understanding from elected officials, government staff, advocates, and the general public. Civic leaders and institutions play a critical role in providing the technical, policy, and operational expertise needed to improve mission-critical functions of these governments. The theme elevates the Federation’s mission and spotlights the civic luminaries who positively impact this ripple effect.
In this spirit, we are proud to honor two leaders advancing cross-sector collaboration and good governance. Sean Garrett, President and CEO of United Way Metro Chicago, will receive the Gage-Msall Award for demonstrating a longstanding commitment to civic leadership, including expanding the Neighborhood Network initiative, launching the Chicago BridgeBuilders Fund, and partnering with government to create 211 Metro Chicago.
EY will receive the Addams-Palmer Award for its exemplary civic involvement, including providing strategic fiscal analysis and long-term planning support to public sector leaders, while also working across corporate and community partners to advance economic opportunity and workforce development initiatives in the Chicago region.
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How Illinois' FY2027 Proposed Budget Manages Federal Funding Risks
Research by Lily Padula
Federal funding supports roughly one-third of Illinois’ budget across all funds, underpinning key programs across health and human services. Recent federal funding policy changes introduce new fiscal pressures and uncertainty for the State. A report released earlier this month outlines how the proposed FY2027 budget takes a near-term, reactive approach—building on prior tax decoupling actions and increasing administrative funding for SNAP and Medicaid to manage immediate impacts. However, it does not address longer-term risks, particularly regarding Medicaid cuts. Overall, we find the proposal lacks a comprehensive strategy to address structural funding challenges and rising uncertainty.
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How Illinois' FY2027 Proposed Budget Balances the Books
Research by Lily Padula
Illinois’ FY2027 budget proposal closes the $2.2 billion budget gap and achieves balance primarily through a combination of targeted revenue changes, modest reallocations of existing revenues, and limited expenditure growth, rather than through large tax increases or deep spending reductions. This report from late March outlines that, in large part, the budget-balancing measures involve temporary or incremental fiscal adjustments rather than permanent structural changes, including extending limits on tax deductions, shifting revenues between funds, and adjusting the allocation of existing tax revenues.
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Explainer: Local Government Consolidation
Research by Lily Padula
With nearly 9,000 units of local government, Illinois is the most fragmented state in the country—prompting frequent calls for consolidation to improve efficiency, accountability, and fiscal sustainability. In practice, consolidation is not a single solution but a spectrum of approaches, from full mergers to targeted changes. Governments pursue these strategies in response to fiscal pressure, administrative duplication, workforce constraints, and the need to modernize systems. While often framed as a cost-saving measure, consolidation does not automatically produce savings; outcomes depend on the specific services involved, and how changes are implemented and governed.
Earlier this month, the Civic Federation released a report outlining the key arguments for and against consolidation and how these issues have played out in Illinois. Research shows consolidation is most effective when it is targeted, function-specific, and supported by clear implementation and accountability structures. In Illinois, consolidation efforts have largely been incremental and locally driven, with the greatest success found in shared services and selective dissolutions rather than broad structural mergers.
Ultimately, consolidation is best understood as one tool among many—most valuable when applied to a clearly defined problem with realistic expectations about costs, benefits, and tradeoffs.
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Term of the Month:
Structural Deficit / noun
A structural deficit is a long-term budget imbalance in which recurring expenditures exceed recurring revenues, making it increasingly difficult to balance budgets without implementing significant policy changes. Unlike short-term deficits caused by economic downturns or acute pressures, a structural deficit persists independent of the health of the economy.
EX: While Illinois' proposed FY2027 proposed budget closes the immediate budget gap, it does not address the structural deficit driven by faster growth in core expenditures than revenues, which could lead to long-term fiscal instability without policy changes that support revenue growth and spending control.
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Member Spotlight:
Damion Heron
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Damion Heron is the Midwest Executive, Corporate Responsibility at JP Morgan Chase Bank.
First and foremost, Damion is a dedicated father and husband. When he’s not doing that, he is a corporate responsibility executive at JPMorgan Chase leading the firm’s public engagement strategies across a fourteen-state region. He Joined JPMorgan Chase in 2008, and over the past 16 years has held leadership roles in philanthropy, community engagement and development, and public affairs. He currently leads a team of philanthropists and community and economic development professionals dedicated to investing resources, building partnerships, and informing our business on how to create products and services that best serve all our customers and communities.
Prior to his time with JPMorgan Chase, Damion held similar roles in the private and public sectors with The Boeing Company Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications, Britain’s House of Commons. Outside of work and family he's active as a civic leader with one goal in mind, to make the City of Chicago and state of Illinois a better place to live. He is 2014 Edgar Fellow, and a proud 2018 Leadership Greater Chicago Signature Fellow. He was also humbled to be named to Crain’s Chicago list of who’s who in Community Development. Damion has served on boards and steering committees of several prominent organizations including Civic Federation of Chicago, Leadership Greater Chicago, Neighborhood Housing Services, Forefront, Asset Funders Network and Social Responsibility Chicago.
Damion holds B.A degrees in Political Science and Philosophy from Bradley University and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago.
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Policy in Practice: The State of the Nonprofit Sector
April 21
This month, the Civic Federation launched our inaugural Policy in Practice series to great success. We were thrilled to welcome Mark Ishaug, President and CEO of Thresholds, Emily Sweet, Chief Impact Officer of the Jewish United Fund, and Lauren Wright, Executive Director of Illinois Partners for Human Services. The event was moderated by Civic Federation board member and Senior Director of Community and Partnerships, Kristin Carlson Vogen, who led an insightful conversation around some of the biggest challenges surrounding funding acquisition and federal fiscal pressures on the nonprofit sector. Thank you to everyone who attended in person and virtually, and thanks again to our incredible speakers!
Stay tuned for information on the next event in our Policy in Practice series to be held over the summer!
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Budgets and Bevvies: Illinois' FY2027 Budget
April 20
On April 20, the Civic Federation hosted Budgets and Bevvies at our new office location, the Chicago Board of Trade, to discuss Illinois' FY2027 budget. With over 20 members and guests in the room, we heard from Senior Policy and Research Associate Lily Padula about our take on the State’s proposed budget, and what’s in store for the rest of the Springfield legislative session.
This event was made possible by Board Directors John Dunn and Donovan Pepper, and Cozen O’Connor.
Budgets and Bevvies is a series offered exclusively to our members. If you are interested in learning more about membership, please click here.
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New Early Childhood Newsletter
Following the launch of the new Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC), the Civic Federation published our first Early Childhood newsletter to track all the updates related to this exciting new department. This monumental shift will consolidate several programs that were previously spread out across multiple agencies into one cohesive department, allowing children and families across the state to have greater access and transparency to the services they rely on. Throughout this pivotal transition period, Civic Federation will continue to monitor progress and keep our members apprised of the latest updates.
Find the link to our most recent Early Childhood newsletter here and visit our website to access our new interactive Early Childhood dashboard.
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Policy Pulse
A snapshot of the issues, legislation, and fiscal debates shaping Illinois' public policy conversation.
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HB4416 and Its Fiscal Implications for CPS
Earlier this month, the Civic Federation sent a letter to the Chicago Board of Education outlining concerns with HB4416, which would extend unemployment benefits to non-instructional school employees during summer months. While supportive of the goal to support school employees, we raised strong concerns about the bill’s structure as an unfunded mandate on school districts across Illinois.
HB4416 could impose significant new costs of potentially up to $100 million annually for CPS alone without providing additional revenue. Given ongoing budget pressures, CPS would have limited options to absorb these costs, increasing the likelihood of classroom cuts.
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Cook County Treasurer's Report Reinforces Civic Federation Property Tax Position
Last month’s report on growth in Cook County property tax levies from the Cook County Treasurer’s Office drew heavily on Civic Federation research, reinforcing our longstanding concerns about the structure and sustainability of the property tax system. The report’s findings echo key themes from multiple Federation reports, including the system’s complexity, inequities, and ineffectiveness of guardrails in place meant to control runaway property tax growth.
For a comprehensive overview of the Civic Federation’s recent work on property taxes, read our brief recap.
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Get Involved with the Civic Federation
Join a network of civic, business, and nonprofit leaders who are shaping the future of Chicago and Illinois. Civic Federation members bring deep expertise across a wide range of sectors—and a shared passion for civic engagement, collaboration, and driving real change.
Membership includes access to a series of exclusive programs and events held throughout the year, connecting you directly with Civic Federation staff, public officials, subject-matter experts, and fellow leaders. These gatherings spark dynamic conversations, foster new partnerships, and turn bold ideas into actionable solutions for our region’s most pressing challenges. We offer several levels of membership, thoughtfully calibrated to organization type and size, individual needs, and the desired level of engagement and impact.
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Highlights from Recent Months
Each month builds on the last. Explore our past work on Chicago and Illinois’ fiscal health, governance reform, and good government:
| | Want to dive deeper into the Civic Federation's work? Visit our Research Library to explore our research by government and topic area. | | | | |
