Note to readers from Mark Glennon re: Ukraine
May 6, 2026
12 Comments
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
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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.
Xo Bi Den says best job report ever since he’s driving the bus. Unfortunately, over a cliff.
What does Bloomington have that Fayetteville, Arkansas doesn’t?
Governed by Pritzker
Bloomington has more affordable housing and more household income. Property taxes are higher in Bloomington but the overall monthly mortgage including taxes is still lower for the average home. If you’re retired, Illinois doesn’t charge income tax while Arkansas still wants your money. A couple of retired pensioners would save about 15k per year by living in Bloomington.
From a financial perspective, Bloomington still offers a great value. Money isn’t everything though. Fayetteville is a great city and the surrounding area is beautiful compared to central Illinois. Even with the additional expense, I would choose Fayetteville.
They are leaving to get away from people of likes of you. PUKE.
Yet you still live here. Why is that? Oh that’s right, you know that you are financially better off staying in Illinois and all it has to offer. Otherwise, why would someone stay in a state that makes them complain 10 hours a day? You have to be a real sick individual to live life like that.
If I was miserable in Illinois I would leave not complain non-stop. Life is good for me but clearly you are one sad individual. Good luck to you PT. Just make sure you keep paying your taxes.
The once great state of Illinois will not be getting much more from me and millions of others. Best of luck to the ones who remain. The Poor will be left to pay huge tax bills they cannot afford.
Retirees are working at State Farm? I jest…
That was kinda my point…two college towns 2-3 hour drive from the closest major metropolitan area. It can’t be easy recruiting for Bloomington and I imagine the worker who would be drawn to a Bloomington lifestyle would be drawn to NW Arkansas as well. If you’re State Farm and shrinking your footprint overall, does it make sense to pick up and move? If I were them, I’d look for booming market. NW Arkansas, for better or worse, seems to be growing rapidly at the moment.
Retired people from the private sector often don’t have defined benefit pensions, and to the extent they do, such pensions are small. Accordingly if you look at the cost of living issue in Arkansas for most it is not cheaper to remain in Illinois. The overall tax burdens in Illinois are and will remain crushing. Fayetteville has a major university that surprisingly has improved over the years (they were the best in my NCAA sport in the 80’s with an uneven reputation academically – we used to rationalize their athletic excellence as reliant on easier academics but not a mature… Read more »
It’s not just pensions that are not taxed in Illinois. IRA/401K withdrawals are also not taxed. Not the case in Arkansas. I agree that Fayetteville is a much better option than Bloomington but it’s not because of cost of living advantages. Arkansas retirees would pay more in income tax unless they are only living of social security. So people that prepared for retirement will pay more in Arkansas. It would also cost you more in real estate. Which is either a large cash hit or a larger mortgage. I agree that Fayetteville is much better than Bloomington but not because… Read more »
I looked up housing (that I would live in – and I have a nice fully paid up place with land in the east) – in both Fayetteville and Bloomington. It is actually hard to find a house that I would choose to live in Bloomington. I did find one around 450k that I could live in. Not all that great but ok. The choices are much greater in Fayetteville (likely reflecting their economy) and there were a number nicer houses (by not a large margin though) around 700k in Fayetteville. Property taxes are double in Bloomington, but real estate… Read more »
NW Arkansas is pretty nice with the enormous Walmart campus, the University, and all that goes with that kind of success – it was recently ranked as one of the best places to live. Bloomington and IL can’t come close.
As someone who went to Illinois State in Normal, I have to say that central Illinois sucks, it is a totally charmless place…. could not wait to get out of there…
There are some nice golf course communities in Normal, but as others have noted Pritzker is the biggest problem for IL by far. Pritzker just looks at middle-class people and companies as saps to be abused to fund his wacky ideas and prop up the public employee union largess.
Sounds like the State Farm jobs aren’t just leaving IL, they might be leaving the US: ” … outsource its IT help desk and infrastructure services work to an outside technology company, HCLTech.” HCLTech is a global company, HQ in India. So, where will State Farm’s IT help desk be located?
Certainly not in Illinois
Another example of how the Democrats are just fkn great! Totally unrestricted mopery.
Wait for State Farm to re-domesticate to another state that isn’t determined to tax and regulate business to death
Allstate has it’s foot half of the door and State Farm will be next. Which is too bad because IL is considered a very strong insurance state because we have so many insurance companies based here or have large operations here. They have almost fully captured the toothless IL Dept of Insurance. But if they’re leaving the state even with complete control of the regulators, that tells you how bad things really must be.
I drove through Bloomington the other day and couldn’t believe how it has gone downhill in recent times. I knew it was going to happen when State Farm announced it had acquired land in Texas to expand its operations. This is another success story for Pritzker because he knows out of work individuals rely on food stamps and welfare making their votes buyable with welfare benefits. Even more tax and fee hikes on the way folks. Be happy because your food stamps are in the mail.
Yup. In a low growth/ negative growth economy that Biden and Pritzker have, low state taxes is a bigger deal. I’m starting to think the DFW metro will extend into OK soon.
IL’s small towns are dumps. Compare Sheboygan to Waukegan, Rockford to Elkhart, Bloomington, IN to Bloomington, IL, Marion to Chippawa Falls, Springfield to Madison, Lake Geneva to Galena, Decatur to Wausau. Similarly situated cities with comparable features (capital city, industrial, on the lake, college town, etc) and ALWAYS the IL city is by far the least desirable place to live.
More business exiting Illinois. No surprise, everyone is getting out. The state has done everything in their power to discourage business and it is working. Tax them to death and they will leave. Another 500 left Illinois today and every day. The all give the state the 1 finger salute as the cross the state line never to look back.
Elon showed that you can fire 75% of the staff and still have a normal completely functioning company. Other companies aren’t taking steps quite as drastic, but there’s going to be a lot of hacking and sawing and cutting and slashing of employees over the next several years.
Yes, too many useless eaters. Hacking sawing slashing and cutting is an accurate description of what is coming. Wake up Illinois !
Mr Musk is the GOAT.
Why did he buy Twitter?
To get 127 million followers to whom he can sell Tesla cars.
He has the most followers on the Planet now. Simple but brilliant.
A steal for $44bn, mainly of other people’s (bank) money.
The Establishment hates him, because he has ALL the power.
He even speaks to Putin. Elon could end the Ukraine war if he had the time and inclination.
For many in big business and government, their main career aspiration is to be a tick – find a soft wrinkle and bore in.