Chicago: Structural Stress 2026

Treasury issues the federal scholarship tax-credit rules — 30 states in by the IRS count, and governors have until Jan 1

Treasury and the IRS released the rules for the federal scholarship tax credit on Oct 1 (TD 10057). The credit is capped at $1,700 per donor, $3,400 for married couples, and governors have until Jan 1, 2027 to opt in. The participation count depends on who is counting, so this page attributes both: “So far 30 states have said they'll participate, according to the IRS” (Chalkbeat), while Education Week's tracker counts 31 that have opted in or plan to. Governor Pritzker is “reviewing” whether Illinois will opt in. This updates the Sept 10 item below, which expected Treasury's regulations by the end of September.

Sources: Chalkbeat, Oct 2 · Education Week, Oct 1, updated Oct 2 (Tier B, independent). Gate 3 met; both counts attributed. Next: Jan 1, 2027 opt-in deadline.

CPS has re-hired 350 laid-off school staff — on $100M the state has not yet appropriated

“Feigenbaum is one of the 350 people CPS has rehired so far under the complex budget mandate, or about one-third of the school-based staffers eligible to have their layoffs reversed. But it's unclear how long those jobs will last if CPS doesn't receive an additional $100 million this fiscal year.” The budget assumes $150M of additional state funding, $100M of it for the reversals; that aid needs a three-fifths vote in the veto session. A Chicago Public Education Fund official asks whether the jobs “go away in December, in January?” Mixed: a counter-signal in headcount, contingent on Springfield, sitting alongside official enrollment of 304,687 (−11,537), a BB+ negative outlook and $2.6B of new bond authority.

Source: Chalkbeat Chicago, Oct 1 (Tier B; single source). Next: Illinois veto session (2026 dates not yet confirmed).

Over the mayor, the City Council votes 32–15 to require 30 votes for any new borrowing

“The Chicago City Council voted 32-15 Tuesday to require at least 30 alderpeople to vote to approve any plan to borrow more money.” The ordinance had been delayed one meeting by mayoral allies on Sept 23, when Mayor Johnson tied his opposition to his $600M capital plan and a $1.25B bond issue. He “declined to tell reporters whether he would veto the measure … It would take 34 votes on the City Council to override his veto.” As of Oct 5 it had been neither vetoed nor signed. Reading: in one week Chicago's two governing bodies moved the debt instrument in opposite directions — the school board widened its borrowing authority on Sept 24 (credit field above), and the City Council narrowed the city's on Sept 29. The budget address is expected mid-October, against an $882.4M FY27 gap.

Sources: WTTW, Sept 29 · Chicago Sun-Times, Sept 23 (Tier B). Next: veto or signature; budget address mid-October.

Counter-signal: the White House drops its draft order for a committee that could veto NIH awards

A draft executive order to create a committee with power to veto research awards, reported Sept 20–21, was dropped on Sept 23 after bipartisan pushback. Roll Call: “White House drops executive order for tighter NIH purview”; STAT reports the plan appears dead. The separate OMB proposal for political-appointee review and cancellation of grants already in progress remains paused under the continuing resolution, which runs to Dec 11. Reading: an institution reached for an instrument and put it down. It is a counter-signal for the research-funding side of the higher-ed field, and a narrow one: it removes a proposed veto, not the funding reductions already recorded on this page. No reversal was searched for after Sept 28.

Sources: STAT, Sept 23 · Roll Call, Sept 23 (Tier B, independent). Gate 3 met. Next: Dec 11 (CR expiry).

S&P cut the school board's outlook to negative and named the 621-school footprint — two weeks after upgrading the state

S&P revised the Chicago Board of Education outlook to negative while affirming BB+, citing “lack of structural budgetary discipline” and a 621-school footprint that “is not aligned with its enrollment” — 323,047 students, down from 372,214 in 2018. Read this next to the item below and do not collapse them. The same agency upgraded Illinois general obligation debt to A from A− on Sept 1, the state's twelfth upgrade under this governor, a week after Moody's did the same. One rating agency, two weeks, opposite directions: the state's credit is improving while the district inside it deteriorates. That is the divergence stated by a single voice, which is the cleanest form it has taken anywhere on this dashboard — and it is why “Chicago” cannot be given one fiscal reading.

Sources: S&P Global Ratings actions, Sept 1 and Thursday Sept 10, 2026 (the latter reported Sept 14; dated precisely Oct 1), via The Bond Buyer (Tier B trade press of record)

COUNTER-SIGNAL — the city made the second half of its $260M supplemental pension payment, and Moody's said its outlook depends on exactly that

Chicago completed the second instalment of its $260 million supplemental pension payment, and Moody's stated on the record that its stable outlook rests on the city continuing to make them. Against the $882.4M FY2027 gap and the CPS exposure carried elsewhere on this page, this is the counter-weight and it is a real one: the discretionary payment that agencies watch most closely was made, on schedule, in the year the city is loudest about its shortfall. Separately corrected: a “$130M supplemental pension payment due Sept 30” pinned here earlier is refuted — the record shows $175M, tied to an MEABF reimbursement with a board vote of Oct 31 2025, and under state law the City, not CPS, carries that obligation. No Sept 30 statutory CPS deadline exists. The pinned date is retired.

Source: Moody's commentary via Bond Buyer, Sept 2026 (Tier B trade press of record)

Federal Scholarship Tax Credit confirmed at 30 states — and North Carolina opted in over the governor's veto

The IRS participating-states page, as of July 24, 2026, lists 30 states for the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit under IRC §25F — not the 27 previously carried on this dashboard, and not the 28 reported elsewhere. Additions since the June 8 list: Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina. From Jan 1, 2027, individuals may claim up to $1,700 for contributions to Scholarship Granting Organizations, which must spend at least 90% of income on scholarships; a state must both elect and furnish the IRS a list of qualifying SGOs. Treasury's proposed regulations are due by the end of September. North Carolina is worth recording for how it got there: it opted in over Governor Stein's veto, the legislature overriding him through House Bill 87 / Session Law 2026-6 — a governor reaching for an instrument and a legislature taking it out of his hands. Illinois is not on the list — alongside Arizona, Washington, California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and DC. Families in this metro get no federal credit in 2027 unless the state elects later, which splits the school-choice map along lines that do not track how voucher-forward a state already is: Arizona, the furthest along on state-funded ESAs, is sitting the federal credit out.

Sources: IRS participating-states page (Tier A, as of July 24, 2026) · NCGA House Bill 87 enacted text (Tier A). Gate 3 met — two independent primary sources. Next: Treasury proposed regulations due by Sept 30, 2026.

City FY2027 forecast: an $882.4M gap, 23% smaller than last year — and a new >$100M hole opens inside CPS

Released Sept 3. The city projects an $882.4 million FY2027 shortfall, “more than 23% smaller than the $1.15 billion deficit that confronted city officials a year ago” — and the mayor is touting it as such. But the same document sets the TIF surplus at $330–340 million, and “because the CPS budget approved by the Chicago Board of Education for the 2026-27 academic year counted on getting $285 million in surplus TIF funds from the city, the city's forecast means the school board is facing a new gap of more than $100 million.” The city's improvement is, in part, the district's deterioration — the stress moved between balance sheets without leaving the metro. CPS now carries two open gaps: this one and the $150M unappropriated state assumption, together over $250 million, against a budget officials already said would not read as balanced under state law. Expenditures rise more than $500 million on bond and pension costs, scheduled COLAs, and legacy settlements. Johnson did not rule out a property-tax increase. Counter-signal in the same forecast, reported at equal weight: the gap is $270M smaller year over year, the city plans no operating borrowing in 2027 and intends a full supplemental pension payment. Sub-figures beyond the headline gap, the TIF range and the CPS quote are carried as WTTW's read of the forecast, not independently verified.

Sources: WTTW, Heather Cherone, Sept 3, 2026 · Block Club Chicago · Bloomberg · Bond Buyer · The Daily Line. Gate 3 met. Next: Sept 30 pension payment · mid-October executive budget · Nov 3 school board election.

UIC study: TIF districts raised property taxes without spurring development in the neighbourhoods they were created for

A University of Illinois Chicago Great Cities Institute report finds Chicago's TIF districts “boosted property taxes but failed to spur development” in blighted neighbourhoods. Single-sourced. Standing context on the county side: Cook County's FY2027 preliminary forecast shows a $550.7 million gap — $336M general plus $214.7M health — the largest in sixteen years, driven by a court ruling restricting transportation-tax use ($258M structural) and federal health cuts. The county's own forecast carries a counter-signal inside it: sales tax projected +$147.2 million, and the county cites “multiple credit rating upgrades.” County executive budget due in October.

Sources: WTTW, Aug 31 dateline (Tier B, single-sourced) · Cook County FY2027 preliminary forecast (Tier A, pre-window)

Three senior finance officials have left the city in six weeks — CFO, deputy CFO and budget director

Carried as an unverified lead in the prior cycle with an explicit instruction not to publish. It is now confirmed, and it is worse than the lead described. Acting CFO Steven Mahr resigned around July 28 after serving February to July; Budget Director Annette Guzman resigned around Aug 3, roughly a week later; and the deputy CFO is also out, with a city investor event approaching. Reporting describes budget-office and CFO-office conflict becoming public, and the Finance Committee chair questioning whether Mahr had the support to succeed. Separately confirmed: the mayor will refinance debt to fill an $85.1M in-year FY2026 gap after budgeted revenue failed to materialise. Three simultaneous departures at the top of a finance function, in the dataset's Tier 4 metro, ahead of an investor event. Updated Sept 5: the CFO seat was filled before the prior report and the “no CFO” framing is superseded — Mayor Johnson named Ashlee Gabrysch, formerly a senior director at Fitch Ratings, on Aug 10–11. The budget director post remains vacant with first deputy Jonathan Ernst acting, and the FY2027 forecast is due by the end of September. Johnson on the $85.1M in-year gap: “We cannot continue to govern by searching for loose change in the couch.”

Sources: Chicago Sun-Times · Crain's Chicago Business · The Bond Buyer · WTTW

The assumption under every housing field on this page just inverted — markets now price a September rate hike

In his first Jackson Hole address as Fed chair, Kevin Warsh said he was “impressed” by economic strength but unconvinced that underlying inflation had meaningfully improved, and that the Fed may have “work to do.” He gave no forward guidance and no reaction function. Fed funds futures moved from 34% to 54% probability of a September rate hike; Société Générale now models 25bp hikes in September, December and March 2027. Municipal bonds and Treasuries cheapened. The weekly average 30-year mortgage sits at 6.65% and the daily at 6.75% — near the highest in thirteen months. Why this leads: every housing and municipal-credit reading on these twenty pages has been carrying an implicit assumption that the next rate move is downward. That assumption is now contested by the futures market, and a hiking path changes the direction of both fields simultaneously.

Sources: Federal Reserve — speech text (Tier A) · CNBC · Washington Post

Counter-signal — Moody's upgrades Illinois to A1, the state's highest rating since 2011

Moody's upgraded Illinois to A1 from A2 across issuer, general obligation and Build Illinois sales-tax ratings, citing eight consecutive on-time balanced budgets, elimination of the bill backlog, a rainy-day fund near $2.5 billion, and new pension-liability measures. It is the eleventh upgrade since 2021 and the state's highest Moody's rating since December 2011. Recorded prominently because this page is the dataset's Tier 4 metro and the state overhang has been a standing part of that reading: the state's credit is improving markedly while its largest district's finances are not. Both facts belong on the page.

Sources: The Bond Buyer · Governor of Illinois (Tier A)

Federal scholarship tax credit: this state has not made an advance election

The IRS roster of states electing to participate for 2027 lists thirty; this state is not among them. Read with the same caution as the participating case: the list records affirmative elections only and does not distinguish a refusal from a state that has simply not acted, so absence here is not evidence of a decision. The “31 planning / 2 refusing / 18 undecided” split circulating in secondary reporting cannot be verified from this source or any other, and is not carried on this site.

Source: IRS, Participating states for 2027, as of July 24, 2026 (Tier A)

Case-Shiller June: five of the twenty metros are negative year over year, and the split is regional

The June index, released Aug 25: national +1.52% YoY, 10-City +2.94%, 20-City +2.10% — and the thirteenth consecutive month in which home values fell in real terms (June CPI 3.5% against 1.5% nominal). Across this dataset: Chicago +6.90% leads the index for a fourth straight month, then New York +4.79%, San Francisco +3.22%, Boston +2.71%, Miami +2.27%, Washington +1.70%, Los Angeles +1.39%, Charlotte +0.52%, Atlanta +0.27% — and negative at Dallas −0.66%, Phoenix −0.88%, Denver −1.24%, Las Vegas −1.90%, Seattle −1.95%. Seven metros posted seasonally-adjusted monthly declines. S&P's own framing: “a years-long trend, with housing markets in the Northeast and Midwest regaining strength while many Western and Sunbelt markets soften.”

Source: S&P Cotality Case-Shiller, Aug 25, 2026 (Tier A)

The $150M is not coming from the formula — resolved against the district, with three corrections

The state funding calculation resolved against the assumption built into the FY27 budget; the deficit remains above $730 million. Three corrections to what this page and prior reporting carried: (1) the $50M grants component of the $150M was never addressed anywhere and remains a data gap; (2) no standalone board resolution formally “demanding” $150M exists — the framing was budget-amendment language, and earlier phrasing overstated it; (3) the veto session is Nov 17–19 and Dec 1–3, not Nov 17 alone. Two traps worth recording: a widely circulating gubernatorial quote (“that's just not going to happen”) traces verbatim to an article bylined August 2025 and its 2026 attribution is unverified; and any “CPS CEO ousted” item refers to a December 2024 departure, not the current CEO. Separately, a second union — roughly 1,800 lunchroom workers — filed for state fact-finding on July 30, a required strike precursor.

Sources: Chalkbeat Chicago · Illinois General Assembly session calendar (Tier A)

The baseline under every metro moved: Moody's turns negative on US cities and counties, and Q2 downgrades outran upgrades for the first time since the pandemic

Moody's revised its outlook on US cities and counties to negative from stable in late July, citing rising healthcare, labour and capital costs against “weakening consumer and taxpayer capacity.” The quarterly turn is the sharper fact: Q1 2026 ran 208 upgrades to 107 downgrades; Q2 2026 ran 116 downgrades to 96 upgrades — the first quarter since the pandemic in which local-government downgrades outnumbered upgrades. Higher education and healthcare also saw more downgrades than upgrades. HilltopSecurities notes the only comparable stretches were during and just after the Great Financial Crisis and COVID; BofA reads the outlook shift as signalling rating direction over 12–18 months. This moves no single metro — it moves the floor under all twenty, and it is recorded on each page for that reason. The same reporting carries its own refutation, quoted in the counter-signal below.

Source: The Bond Buyer, Aug 21, 2026

Counter-signal — the same analysis refuses a uniform-deterioration reading

Recorded at equal volume, from inside the article that carries the negative outlook above: the argument is explicitly that fundamentals no longer produce uniform credit outcomes. Sector-wide direction and individual-issuer direction have decoupled — strong issuers continue to be upgraded in the same quarters that weak ones are cut. A negative sector outlook is a statement about the distribution, not a forecast for any particular city, county or district on this page.

Source: The Bond Buyer, Aug 21, 2026

Counter-signal — mayor reaffirms the advance pension payment to bond investors; wagering tax running 69% above projection

At the Chicago Investors Conference, the Mayor confirmed the city will make the second half of its advance pension payment this year — “It's a question of when, not if” — citing Cook County property tax billing delays for the uncertain timing, and said the online sports wagering and social media amusement taxes are running 69% and 25% above projections. The Civic Federation's Paula Worthington: “from the credit agencies' perspectives, that kind of expressed reaffirmation of that commitment is a really positive thing.” Read with discipline: this is a reaffirmation without a date, not a payment — and the rating stack remains KBRA BBB+, Fitch BBB+, S&P BBB all on negative outlook, with Moody's Baa3 stable. Recorded because a Tier 4 page that logs only deterioration has stopped testing itself.

Source: The Bond Buyer

Board places two non-binding advisory referendums on the November ballot — a first in its history

One day after the substantive instrument failed, the board reached for a symbolic one. For the first time ever, the Chicago Board of Education voted to place two advisory questions on the November ballot: a statewide millionaires tax for education, and a city penalty on vacant-land owners. The special meeting initially lacked a quorum amid boycott accusations; the sole no vote called them “window dressing,” and the Civic Federation publicly urged the board to focus on levers it actually controls. Non-binding questions cannot fund a payroll.

Source: Chalkbeat Chicago

CPS concedes it cannot reverse all the layoffs its own board ordered restored

After the board's 11–7 vote revising the ~$10B FY27 budget to assume an extra $150M in state money ($100M evidence-based funding + $50M grants), district officials said they cannot afford to reinstate every position cut in July — rehiring explicitly excludes class-size-reduction and special-education positions. Retired Aug 31: an “Aug 27 SEIU Local 73 contingency-plan deadline” circulated on this page and could not be sourced in any Tier A or B outlet on repeated searching. It is also inconsistent with the CPS–SEIU 73 agreement reached in May 2024, which runs through the end of the 2026-27 school year. Struck Sept 5: the follow-on claim that a separate City of Chicago–SEIU 73 agreement expires Aug 31, 2026 was itself a mis-attribution and is withdrawn. SEIU Local 73's own contracts registry shows no City of Chicago unit expiring that date — the City Historical Unit (BU-45) and Window Washers both run Jul 1, 2022 to Jun 30, 2027, and the CPS/SEIU 73 agreement runs to Jun 30, 2027. The Aug 31, 2023–Aug 31, 2026 contract that seeded the item belongs to Northwestern University Library Workers, a private employer in a different jurisdiction. The real forward date: many Cook County SEIU 73 units expire Nov 30, 2026. The arithmetic that matters: schools open Aug 24; the $150M requires a three-fifths supermajority in both chambers during a veto session that does not convene until Nov 17.

Source: Chalkbeat Chicago

CPS falls to 70% funding adequacy — ISBE allocation lands ~$100M below the board's own budget assumption

ISBE released FY27 evidence-based funding calculations Friday. CPS's adequacy ratio fell to ~70% — from 73% last year and 79% the year before — with an allocation of ~$1.9B against the $2B written into the amended FY27 budget passed July 30. Statewide, 714 of ~940 Illinois districts moved further from adequacy despite a $350M funding increase. Combined with the Speaker's Aug 6 disavowal below, both contingent revenue legs of a budget that was never balanced were removed within one news cycle — with teachers reporting Aug 17 and students Aug 24. Data note: the ISBE primary page fetched as archived; figures rest on two independent Tier B outlets reporting the same release.

Sources: Chicago Sun-Times · Chalkbeat Chicago

Illinois House Speaker publicly disavows the $150M CPS budgeted from the state

On camera Aug 6, Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch: “$150 million. I don't know where that number came from. I made a commitment to fight for funding for schools.” The $150M was built into the FY27 CPS budget by CTU-aligned board members. Because that budget is not considered balanced, CPS must borrow short-term to make first payroll — and board members have acknowledged this could trigger a downgrade. Framework reading: the institutional form persists on paper while the substrate that funded it is withdrawn, and the gap is closed by borrowing against a future the same institution no longer plausibly commands — the Tier 4 mechanism visible in the open.

Source: ABC7 Chicago (network O&O; partial Tier B corroboration via Sun-Times)

Portillo's cuts 18% of Oak Brook corporate headquarters workforce

Disclosed on the Q2 earnings call: roughly 18% of corporate HQ staff cut July 31, plus limited field-management roles — ~$1.1M restructuring charge per SEC filing, $10–15M annualized savings targeted. Same-store sales −1.2%, traffic −3.4%.

Sources: Chicago Tribune · Restaurant Dive

Chicago housing — LEADS all 20 Case-Shiller US metros: sale price +6.93% YoY (May 2026, 3rd consecutive month leading); list +4.1% YoY (Realtor.com); gap -2.83pp

Dual-source triangulation (May–July 2026): S&P Cotality Case-Shiller repeat-sales index for Chicago shows sale price +6.93% YoY (May 2026) — the HIGHEST of all 20 Case-Shiller US metros for the third consecutive month; Realtor.com July median list price +4.1% YoY (median list $392,500). Days on market -1 day YoY; price-cut share 14.0% (3rd-lowest of 20 metros); inventory -7.0% YoY. Gap reading: the -2.83pp spread is moderate. Both sources agree on direction (positive) — Chicago home values are actually STRENGTHENING even as CPS enters its payroll crisis and 2-of-3 city financial officers exit. Case-Shiller's own analysis quoted: Chicago "led all metros with a 6.93% annual increase in May, followed by New York (4.2%) and Cleveland (3.1%)." Framework interpretation: this is the most important counter-signal in the entire Chicago dashboard — housing values in Chicago are rising while every other institutional layer (municipal-credit, K-12, pension) shows textbook Tier 4 contraction. The framework does not reduce to "everything in Chicago is falling"; specifically housing values, on a same-home basis, are the strongest in the US. This IS the divergence-within-metro pattern making itself explicit at the most-stressed metro in the dataset.

Source: S&P Cotality Case-Shiller May 2026 (Tier A) · Realtor.com July 2026 Housing Trends

CPS CEO tells Board of Education Aug 24 school opening cannot be guaranteed without $150M from Springfield

CEO Macquline King, verbatim to the Board of Education (Aug 5): "At this point, we do not know if this will impact the opening of schools on August 24." Her Aug 3 email to families warned failure to secure short-term financing "would effectively shut down the district just as staff and students are set to return." The unbalanced $9.96B FY27 budget threatens the Tax Anticipation Notes that fund early-September payroll. Framework reading: the sharpest institutional-form contraction signal the dataset has produced in the entire post-launch cycle — a large urban district explicitly unable to guarantee it can open on schedule.

Source: CBS Chicago · Aug 5, 2026

2 of 3 top city financial officers resign in 8 days ahead of FY2027 $1.16B budget gap + August investor meeting

Budget Director Annette Guzman resigned Aug 3, one week after acting CFO Steven Mahr and deputy Noor Shaikh departed. The city faces a projected $1.16B FY2027 gap with an updated forecast due end of August and an August investor meeting scheduled. Civic Federation president Joe Ferguson, verbatim: "What we're seeing is they're dropping like flies, for reasons that nobody really understands, going into what already are choppy waters before we even get into the open sea of budget season." Framework reading: governance-form thinning at the exact moment the fiscal-form is under maximum stress — leadership churn compounding the CPS crisis at the city-fiscal layer.

Source: CBS Chicago · Aug 4, 2026

CPS board votes 11-7 to reverse ~1,600 layoffs on $150M unappropriated state money; CPS says it "cannot guarantee" September 4 payroll

The board overrode CEO King's plan, rescinding 760 teacher + 801 aide + 162 central-office layoffs, and plugged the gap with state funding that does not yet exist and will not be considered until the November veto session. CPS's own statement: it "cannot guarantee that CPS will receive financing in time for the September 4 payroll" and the maneuver "may also damage our credit rating and severely restrict our future borrowing capacity." Elected board member Jennifer Custer called the $150M assumption a "hallucination." IL House Speaker Welch said he would "lead that effort in the veto session" — beginning in November, two months after the September payroll date. Framework reading: the governing body voted to preserve institutional form by borrowing against revenue that does not exist, thereby jeopardizing the borrowing mechanism that funds the payroll it just protected. Per Claim-32: the mechanism and the moral fact both hold; the board's choice not to lay off 1,600 people IS a choice, and so is calling the amended budget balanced when the CEO says it is not.

Source: Chalkbeat Chicago · July 31 · WBEZ · July 30

CPS TAN authorization exhausts in August; four agencies at or near junk; negative net cash position ~$587M at FY-end

Bond Buyer: "The current $1.25 billion borrowing authorization for TANs will be used up in August." KBRA's Linda Vanderperre: continued market access "is really, from an operational standpoint, it's almost indispensable... It's not just financial flexibility at this point." Ratings: KBRA BBB-/BBB negative; Moody's Ba1 stable; Fitch BB+ negative; S&P BB+ stable. CPS issued ~$2.09B of TANs during FY2026 and closed the year with a negative net cash position of ~$587M. Cook County has told CPS its second property-tax installment will be delayed ~two months (again). Moody's named "increased use of cash flow borrowing" as an explicit downgrade trigger in Nov 2025 — the board pulled that trigger 8 months later.

Source: Bond Buyer

CPS deficit revised to $732.5M — board confirms FY26-27 fiscal-cliff trajectory

WTTW board coverage May 20 + Chalkbeat May 12 school-level budget release confirm CPS is heading into FY26-27 with a $730-732.5M deficit (revised up from $520M), capped per-school educator layoffs, central-office cuts, and a board resolution asking Springfield for wealth/corporate tax revenue. No closure votes in this window — the no-closure moratorium holds through January 2027.

Source: WTTW · Chalkbeat

Chicago city splits advance pension payment as Cook County property taxes delayed

Acting CFO Steve Mahr confirmed the city cannot make the full advance pension payment and is splitting it, citing delayed Cook County property-tax receipts. Three of four city pension funds hold less than 25% of future liabilities; combined unfunded liability ~$53B.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times