For the second year in a row, Cook County, which includes Chicago, has released its annual audit on time after failing to do so for more than a decade.
The county filed is comprehensive annual financial report May 31, meeting the deadline of releasing it within six months of the Nov. 1 end of the fiscal year.
The report notes that the county closed a $267 million shortfall in its 2013 budget with a series of structural changes as well as a one-time influx of revenue from an expansion of its Medicaid program a year ahead of the new health care law.
The county also implemented the final stage of a four-phase rollback of an unpopular 1% sales tax increase.
Standard & Poor’s rates the county AA. Fitch Ratings rates it AA-minus and Moody’s Investors Service rates it Aa3. Both Fitch and Moody’s have negative outlooks on the government.