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COVID-19: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Accountability and Program Effectiveness of Federal Response

As the nation continues to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, recent increases in cases have hampered these efforts and created new challenges.

In the GAO's 8th comprehensive report, they found more ways to help the federal government address the pandemic and prepare for future emergencies. Specifically, they made 16 new recommendations, including on ways to ensure proper use of relief funds, oversee worker safety and health, and reduce fraud risks.

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A Closer Look at The Proposed Graduated Income Tax

This issue of the Taxpayers' Federation's Tax Facts focuses on the hottest topic in Illinois taxes today: a proposal to amend Illinois’ constitution. Voters this fall will decide whether to authorize a change to Illinois’ 50-year-old flat-rate income tax and permit one imposed instead at graduated rates.

The comparisons of six hypothetical families and their tax liabilities in seven different states, including Illinois before and after the proposed rate changes are fascinating. Even with a significant tax rate increase on the high-income families, Illinois’ was not the highest tax bill. Take a look and see how various Illinois taxpayers will be impacted.

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US Conference of Mayors: Report on Police Reform and Racial Justice

Executive Summary: The Principles of Policing and Recommendations to Achieve Them

On June 30, 2020, we issued a Statement of Principles for reform. The Principles we adopted build upon the core modern policing principles first articulated in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel to address the concerns that the people of London had about standing up a police force in their community. Peel’s Principles stand for the ideas that the police exist to prevent crime and that the legitimacy of the police to keep the public safe derives from public consent and trust. We have refreshed Peel’s Principles here and used them to frame our recommendations so that our American cities can meet this moment.

There is widespread consensus about what needs to be done to reform policing in America. In issuing this Report, we build on previous efforts to address police reform, including the May 2015 report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, our own reports on police-community relations in 2015 and 2016, and years of research and reports from the Police Executive Research Forum, including the Guiding Principles on Use of Force. 

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National League of Cities - City Fiscal Conditions 2020

In March 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, the U.S. economy went into free fall. Retail sales plummeted, unemployment skyrocketed, businesses shuttered, uncertainty abounded. The fiscal impact of these swift economic changes were felt immediately in cities across the country. Sales and income tax revenues were the first to be hit, and cities that rely on these sources, like Cincinnati, OH and Tulsa, OK, were forced to take immediate draconian actions.1 Even property tax revenues, which typically take longer to respond to economic changes, started showing signs of weakening as economic hardship dampened real estate demand and the ability of many to afford their mortgage.

Given that most cities’ FY 2020 budget captures only a couple of months of the pandemic recession, FY 2020 more closely represents a pre-recession baseline of city fiscal conditions for most cities. FY 2021 budgets (which start for many cities in July 2020) begin to more fully capture the fiscal impacts felt by cities across the country. As the virus persists, the toll on city finances is set to be more severe than that experienced during the Great Recession.

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