By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
The lawmakers responsible for Illinois’ dismal status quo swept the board in Tuesday’s elections. The same politicians that ended cash bail, that put Amendment 1 on the ballot, that support endless emergency disaster declarations and that refuse to reform either property taxes or pensions have more power than ever before.
That means most of Illinois’ failed policies will continue for years to come.
Illinois’ poor jobs climate is the latest example. The U.S. Bureau Labor of Statistics reported on Friday that Illinois has the nation’s highest jobless rate for a second month running. It’s a continuation of Illinois’ decades-long failure to compete with other states.
At 4.6 percent in October, Illinois’ rate is 1 to 2 percentage points higher than in neighboring Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri.
By reelecting the same set of politicians, Illinois will remain the nation’s extreme outlier on most of the fiscal, economic and demographic metrics that matter.
Illinoisans will keep paying the nation’s highest property taxes, suffer the consequences of rising crime, remain burdened by the worst pension crisis in the country, pay ever-higher electricity bills, keep sending their children to failing schools and watch as more of their neighbors – and more companies – flee to greener pastures.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Amendment 1 is sure to make things even worse. With public sector unions now in possession of the nation’s most powerful collective bargaining rights, Illinoisans can only expect government costs – and property tax bills – to rise even faster than they were before.
Yes, the status quo won. But that doesn’t mean what they are doing is right – or sustainable.
A reckoning is inevitable. It’s just that Illinoisans will now have to go through far more pain – and four more years – before it can happen.
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Back in the area for the Thanksgiving holidays and drove up from Texas. Its simply a different world in Illinois now that I have been away for almost a year. Completely different world. Everything including gas is so much more expensive up here, in some cases, maybe 25-50% more across the spectrum. I really don’t know why people are staying here. I was at Woodman’s filling up the gas tank at $2.99 a gallon today and you would have thought it was the OPEC oil crisis of 1974, yelling, screaming, beeping, I actually found it hilarious but also quite pathetic.… Read more »
We need to prioritize
All of us former residents will be watching with feelings of anticipation and glee with the validation that we got out in time. Chickens will come home to roost and this is what the voters constantly or ignorantly voted for, so it’s hard to feel sorry for them. As a post script, we came up from SC for Thanksgiving. $4.09 for gas vs $2.89 (for cash, $2.99 credit) in SC. That’s an extra $1.20/gal, over $10 per fill up. The food prices are also high because of higher fuel and delivery costs. Our last visit to IL, the relatives, neighbors… Read more »