“Move over California and New York, a new state is in contention for the 'most dysfunctional' in America.

Illinois is grappling with a string of issues which have triggered a rise in residents departing the state.

The state has struggled to add jobs and its public pension debt has ballooned to nearly $150 billion. Meanwhile, its population has declined, hurting tax income.

Conservative thinktanks have now grouped Illinois with other blue states like New York and California, which have also faced an exodus amid issues ranging from immigration to crime.

'Unemployment rates are very high; wage growth is lagging compared to most other states,' said Bryce Hill, the director of fiscal and economic research at the Illinois Policy Institute.

Hill told the Daily Caller: 'The Census Bureau has reported that residents are leaving the state en masse to the tune of hundreds of thousands every single year, so much so that the state's population has actually been declining for the past 10 years. …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/13380179

Like most states, I assume this is mainly due to their big cities like Chicago.

A shame. Chicago has a lot of great things to offer, but it doesn't compare to the disfunction it also offers.

Oh wait there’s more.

https://www.americanmachinist....source=IY+IW+QM+News

Let’s give a startup EV company that will probably go bankrupt almost a billion dollars of taxpayers money when all is said and done that we don’t have.


This is in response to losing 5 massive companies over the last few years due to taxes but you didn’t fix the tax problem. Bunch of criminals.

I’ve been seeing a lot of commercials begging us to vacation in California and Illinois. A sure sign things are down. No need to advertise things people want.

Being a former NY resident I still think NY wins handily. Easily the most oppressive gun laws in the nation, horrible taxes, catch and release legal system. And like Chicago run’s Illinois NYC runs NY state. Outside of NYC, Ny is VERY DIFFERENT from what people expect. It is more like rural Pennsylvania or West Virginia in regards to politics and general beliefs.

Yeah.....just don't send them to Indiana.

quote:

Originally posted by captain127:
Being a former NY resident I still think NY wins handily. Easily the most oppressive gun laws in the nation, horrible taxes, catch and release legal system. And like Chicago run’s Illinois NYC runs NY state. Outside of NYC, Ny is VERY DIFFERENT from what people expect. It is more like rural Pennsylvania or West Virginia in regards to politics and general beliefs.

As a life long resident of NY, this is generally correct when you get away from the smaller cities (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, etc.)

Shame that Illinois is going down the same path.

The Bears want the taxpayers to fund their new stadium. lol, sure,right…

Whatever happens in Illinois, remember one thing. The Governor here wants to be the President. JB Pritzker will not settle with the mansion in Springfield. That and his job are small potatoes to him. He wants the White House and the Presidency. And he will be a President that if elected in 2028 when I predict he will run, will be much, much worse that Biden. JB is smart, well educated, articulate, speaks very well, everything that Biden is not. The problem is that he is on the wrong side of everything. Remember his name. JB Pritzker. He is the devil in disguise.

I got on the front of the wave leaving IL. Checked out in ‘97, it was already intolerable. Every trip back to visit family leaves me in wonder. My hometown looks like Detroit, MI. is a role model.

Now MN. fml these dumb asses are hell bent to become a 3rd world state.

quote:

JB is smart, well educated, articulate, speaks very well, everything that Biden is not. The problem is that he is on the wrong side of everything. Remember his name. JB Pritzker. He is the devil in disguise.

Yes… the devil. Obama also came from Chicago…

This has been going on for 8 years.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable,

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
Whatever happens in Illinois, remember one thing. The Governor here wants to be the President. JB Pritzker will not settle with the mansion in Springfield. That and his job are small potatoes to him. He wants the White House and the Presidency. And he will be a President that if elected in 2028 when I predict he will run, will be much, much worse that Biden. JB is smart, well educated, articulate, speaks very well, everything that Biden is not. The problem is that he is on the wrong side of everything. Remember his name. JB Pritzker. He is the devil in disguise.

The only thing you might have overlooked is he’s also from a billionaire family that funds his campaigns. He spent something like $167 million of “his own” money during last election and despite everyone seemingly hating the guy won in a landslide.

And here I thought it was spelled Prickster.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
Like most states, I assume this is mainly due to their big cities like Chicago.

Yes. Starting even just an hour or so outside of the big city, the state is mostly farmland full of good, hardworking, conservative Midwesterners. It's a shame how Chicago's dysfunction dominates the entire state.

Related:
Chicago teachers union unveils $50bn demands including lower standards

“The Chicago Teachers Union's contract is set to expire in June which will soon prompt negotiations between educators and the school board.

Union President Stacy Davis Gates said in early March that her proposed contract for 2024 to 2028 'will cost $50 billion and 3 cents.'

'And so what?' Davis Gates added. 'That’s audacity. That’s Chicago.'

The teachers union is demanding nine percent cost of living adjustments every year. 

According to Indeed, the average salary of a teacher in Chicago Public Schools is $67,718. With raises every year for four years, teachers would be getting paid about $95,000 a year by 2028, which is roughly 36 percent higher than the national average.

The $50 billion demand comes despite the fact that Chicago Public Schools spends more than $21,000 per student, far above the national average of $14,347, per the Census Bureau.

And even with the extra $7,000 that Chicago lavishes on its students, the cost doesn't appear to lead to better academic results.

Only 21 percent of eighth grade students in Chicago's public schools were proficient at reading as measured by the Nation's Report Card, which has been cataloguing students' academic performance across all subjects since 1969.

That's perhaps partly why Davis Gates has been sending her son to a prestigious private Catholic school, NBC reported in September 2023. …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/13381383

Very soon my wife and I are going to add to the count in the exodus. Our new house in Tennessee is very close to being finished!

My parents just finished their exodus a couple months ago.

They originally moved up to Illinois from Texas ~20 years ago, when my Dad got a job offer that he couldn't refuse. The career opportunity has been good, but they've been otherwise increasingly unhappy with Illinois taxes and laws. Luckily, they lived 1+ hour outside of Chicago, and my father had the opportunity to work from home even well before it became mainstream. So they rarely ever went into the city, and instead spent their time out in the rural outskirts of the Chicagoland suburbs.

Once he retired, that ended the only reason for being in Illinois, and they quickly bought a house down here near me, happily leaving Illinois in the rearview mirror.