Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski joined Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson on Chicago’s Morning Answer to discuss Kim Foxx’s role in the prosecution of Jussie Smollett, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s inaction on rising crime rates, and Gov. JB Pritzker’s 24 consecutive Executive Orders.
Dabrowski and his hosts agreed that mismanagement and self-interest has become the norm among Illinois’ leaders.
“In Indiana, property taxes are half or a third of what they are in Illinois. Gas is cheaper. Sales tax is lower,” Dabrowski said. “We live with the pain we live with in Illinois, and we never get to the ‘why.’ How did our property taxes get so high and whose fault is it? Why does it happen?”
Dabrowski predicted it will take an exogenous event for Illinoisans to take action and demand change.
“It’s not what I want, but I won’t be surprised if we get that exogenous event that allows people to rally around something,” he said. “Right now our strength in numbers is the people who leave. We need the strength in numbers to come from the people who are still here.”
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
“How did our property taxes get so high”, “Why does it happen?” There are two drivers. Mismanagement of pensions, and Education spending. We spend twice as much as Indiana on both and are only partially funded on the pensions, and get maybe marginally better results in the schools. The pension debt is so high, that localities pony up more for schools through property taxes, so the state can put 25% of revenues into pensions. No retired Illinois public worker will vote for a candidate that calls for cutting benefits, so, you have status quo. The Wirepoints compromise, namely, shifting all… Read more »
When asked why I moved from Illinois to Tennessee, I usually say, “Less snow and less taxes.” There is a third reason I generally don’t mention. As someone that believes in individual responsibility and capitalism, I was often offended by how Illinois used my tax dollars. Most people generally don’t consider morality as it relates to the state they reside. For the longest time neither did I. Once I did however, I felt dirty living in such an anti-responsibility, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christian state. The true fighters for Illinois are the ones that leave. Change won’t come until many more have… Read more »
You’re absolutely correct: At its core, it is corruption. It is a story as old as time. There’s a fancy veneer of legitimacy to the pensions and the state money sloshing around to preferred groups. But at the end of the day, Springfield is run as a modern-day palace economy. Substantial money flows to the capital of IL. It is then doled out unfairly. The connected in-groups receive all the spoils, and the disconnected out-groups pay for it all today and are forced to pledge additional spoils taken from future earning and taxes. They’ve even gone as far as openly… Read more »
If all the “true fighters” leave, then who will vote out the charlatans that run things now? Lightfoot has lost the police, fire Unions, I’m sure a good share of Streets and Sans workers too, along with a substantial share of the business community. Don’t you think the time is ripe for change? Pritzker has overplayed his hand with the lockdowns and his hypocrisy. As long as his opponent is well funded, and stays handles the cultural issues with some delicacy, like not having a guy in a dress as Ives did, they both can be taken down. Paul Vallas… Read more »
Usually democraps carry less than 15% of Illinois counties. Nov 2020 Biden won 14 of 102, a little over 13%. Pat Quinn won a governorship carrying only 3 counties statewide. All the democraps need is Cook/County and the game is pretty over.