This meeting is being recorded for the public record.

The meeting of the Cook County Independent Revenue Forecasting Commission will now come to order.

I will now call the room.

Chairman Hardeman.

Here.

Commissioner Deborah.

Yeah.

Commissioner Merriman.

Here.

Commissioner Feeler.

Here.

Chairman Hardeman, you have a quorum.

Thank you.

Hello all and good evening.

Thank you for joining us for this meeting of the Independent Revenue Forecasting Commission.

I will just start off by saying how much I appreciate all what you do.

The IRFC plays a real and important role in creating our budget and the long-term financial strategy for the county.

Your input and the recommendations that we are finalizing today help guide our work on the budget.

So thank you to the commissioners and the rest of our IRF team for everything that you have done.

With that said, we now can start the meeting.

The first item on the agenda is approval of the minutes from the meeting of July 29th, 2022.

Chair, we need a motion to approve the minutes to proceed.

Is there a motion to approve the minutes?

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, the motion to approve has been approved by Commissioner Devila and second by Commissioner Bayla.

All of those in favor signify by staying A.

All of those O signify by the opinion of the chair, the A's have it.

The meeting minutes will be fouled with the Cook County Secretary of the Board.

The next item on the agenda is the presentation from the team covering the IRFC recommendations.

Thanks, Angela.

So I'll be walking through the IRFC recommendations.

So I'll walk through the recommendations.

And the first recommendation have here pertains to the county working with the IRFC to evaluate the validity of methods used by the county to potentially modify existing taxes in the county's general fund budget.

So the IRFC recommends that the county should request that the IRFC focus specifically on reviewing and validating the methods used by the OCFO when assessing potential modifications to existing taxes.

So the IRFC can support this effort by evaluating how the OCFO develops assumptions, conducts trend analysis, benchmarks, and incorporates any kind of administrative considerations such as state managed collection processes.

As far as the deliverables go, uh in 2026, the OCFO, our team will develop a framework of for the methods uh describing how forecasts for revenue sources are constructed and provide this framework to the IRFC for review.

In 2026, the IRFC will assess these methods appropriately consider and incorporate historical trends, uh different uh statutory constraints, economic considerations.

Uh, and then throughout 2026 as well as into next fiscal year, uh, the OCFO will conduct working sessions with the IRFC members to review uh key assumptions, discuss our analytical approaches, and receive uh feedback from the IRFC members.

Uh and so the second recommendation.

Um as highlighted at June IRFC meeting, uh, the county is facing uh structural imbalance where the general fund expenditures are projected to grow uh and outpace revenues.

Uh so the second recommendation is that the county should establish protocols through which the IRFC formally evaluates the methods used in researching and forecasting any new and alternative revenue sources.

Uh these protocols would ensure that early stage analysis of potential revenue options are structured, uh rigorous and consistent without requesting that the IRFC uh recommend or enforce any specific revenue options.

So the IRFC's role will be to review how these potential sources are analyzed.

Um this could include but not be limited to uh examining uh data inputs, uh sensitivity analysis, again, benchmarking approaches, uh assumptions related to volatility and feasibility.

Um so this work will help confirm that the foundations of the methods are strong before any candidate revenues are implemented by the county or incorporated into the general funds long-term forecast.

So this is 2027.

This is more like 2027, yes.

Uh I think we'll more so begin this discussions in 2027 and work throughout the year uh as far as like the new and alternative revenues leading up to the next year's budget.

Okay, the 2028.

And so uh yeah, so in 2020, oh sorry, maybe um yeah, I'm just uh wondering a little bit about the the uh when you talk about new revenues, uh are we to help with methodology that determines the revenue from I don't know these new tools.

I don't want to use the revenue from new revenues, but the the revenue from the new tools that you might use or the um I think I I want to just know what the boundaries are.

I mean, there'd things to discuss besides just how much revenue it raises, like what would be the the spillover effects and that kind of thing.

I just want to know what you're expecting and what the boundaries are.

And I I don't know that this is a little unclear to me from what's written here.

So I think we're uh we're imagining that this uh is going to be our team doing research on potentially um adding new tax adding a new tax or fee.

Right.

Um, and then as we work to develop um forecasts for these potential taxes or fees, ensuring that the methodologies that we're using uh and considerations that we're making for the for the different potential sources are uh appropriate, uh that the inputs are solid.

Okay, uh okay.