By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has spent the last several days hyping up Illinois to the attendees of the DNC and a national audience. “Of everywhere in this great country, there’s not a better place to see the change possible under Democratic leadership than here in Illinois…Democrats deliver,” he said in his opening video.
He reached a crescendo last night during prime time, making the case for the national Democrats’ policies, with Illinois and Illinois-like policies at the forefront, of course.
But how real is Illinois’ success story really? Pritzker claims that Democrats are champions of jobs, small businesses and the middle class, yet when you look at the direct impact his own policies have had on Illinoisans, things look very different from the governor’s rhetoric.
Illinoisans aren’t better off than they were five years ago. They’re worse-off. And in the most important metrics, Illinois is actually a national outlier.
It’s important to note that Gov. Pritzker didn’t put Illinois in that position on his own. Democrats have had a near-monopoly hold* on Illinois for more than two decades and for nearly 100 years in Chicago. Pritzker is just the next in line.
But for the record, here are the key facts on Illinois’ performance since the governor took office in January of 2019.
Economic growth – nation’s 4th worst.
Gov. Pritzker owns the 4th-worst economic growth in the country. Illinois’ real GDP growth has totaled just 3.1% over his 5.5-year tenure. Indiana’s economy (+10.8%) grew three times more, while Florida’s economy (+22.8%) grew seven times more during the same period.
Employment – nation’s 3rd worst.
85,000 fewer Illinoisans are employed today than when Gov. Pritzker took office in 2019 – the nation’s 3rd-worst performance. Compare that to top-ranked Texas, which has added 1.4 million to its employment rolls over the same period.
Illinois’ lack of good jobs is reflected in its current jobless rate. The state has the nation’s 2nd-highest unemployment rate at 5.2% – behind only Nevada. Illinois has consistently ranked among the worst states for unemployment since Gov. Pritzker took office.
The Chicago area, in particular, is dragging the state down when it should be an economic engine. At 6.2%, it now has the highest jobless rate among the country’s major metropolitan areas. Top performers like Nashville and Miami have unemployment rates half that.
Not to mention that the Chicago area has lost to other states big time names like Boeing, Citadel, Tyson, Caterpillar and now, Morton Salt.
And for all of Illinois’ progressive policies and commitment to “equity,” the job climate for black residents remains one of the nation’s very worst. New data from the Economic Policy Institute calculates that Illinois’ black unemployment is at 8.8% – 3rd worst behind only Kentucky and Ohio.
Home values – nation’s 5th worst.
Illinoisans’ primary retirement nest eggs – the value of their homes – have hardly budged since Gov. Pritzker took office. U.S. Census data shows values through 2022 are up just 5.1% after taking into account inflation – the nation’s 5th-worst increase. Indiana’s home values are up 17%, more than triple Illinois’. Tennessee values are up nearly 30%. In top-ranked Idaho, they’re up nearly 50%.
Medicaid dependency – nation’s 11th worst.
Illinois has added 2.4 million more people to Medicaid since 2000 – more than a third of which (900,000) have been added during Gov. Pritzker’s tenure.
Today, more than 27% of Illinoisans are dependent on Medicaid – the 11th-highest share of residents in the country.
As a result of all that dependency, the all-in cost of Illinois’ Medicaid program has grown to over $25 billion annually, nearly double vs. 2019 and quintuple vs. 2000.
And a near-record number of Illinoisans remain dependent on the government for their next meal. Over 15% of Illinoisans are enrolled in food stamps – the 9th-highest percentage in the country.
Property taxes – nation’s highest.
Illinoisans pay the nation’s 7th-highest overall state and local tax burden. That burden is made up of the nation’s highest property taxes, the 2nd-highest gas taxes, the 8th-highest sales taxes, the highest cell phone taxes…the list goes on.
The most painful is the property tax, which is stunting home value growth and chasing many people out of their homes. Gov. Pritzker promised property tax relief in his 2020 budget address but never delivered any. Four years later and Illinoisans are still paying the nation’s highest property taxes. Illinois’ effective tax rate of 1.88% is double that of Indiana’s (0.86%) and nearly 2.5 times that of Kentucky’s (0.76%).
Population – nation’s 3rd worst.
There are two overarching metrics Americans can look at to determine whether a state’s policies are succeeding or failing. The first is whether a state is gaining or losing people. Unfortunately, Illinois has had the 3rd-biggest loss of population since the last decennial count was completed in 2020, with a drop of more than 240,000 people. Only California and New York lost more.
Texas and Florida were on the other extreme, gaining more than 1 million in population over the three years.
Credit rating – nation’s worst
The other big metric is a state’s credit rating, measuring a state’s financial health and its overall fiscal and economic governance. There, too, Illinois is a national outlier, with the nation’s worst credit rating among the states.
Chicago also has the worst credit rating when it comes to the nation’s largest cities, worse even, than Detroit.
Only four years ago Illinois was on the verge of becoming the nation’s first-ever junk rated state, while Chicago was also already in junk territory. Both were saved by the nearly $200 billion in federal covid aid given to both the private and public sectors over the past several years. Flush with short-term liquidity, both governments have received several credit upgrades.
Of course, other states like New Jersey and Connecticut also benefited from the federal bailouts and received credit upgrades as well. As a result, Illinois and Chicago have retained their position at the bottom of the credit ratings nationally.
*Democrats have held majorities in both houses of the Illinois General Assembly for 21 years and super majorities in both houses for 11 years. A Democrat has been governor for 17 of the last 21 years. Chicago has not had a Republican mayor for 93 years, and Republicans have not held a majority of the Chicago City Council for over 100 years. Cook County has not had a Republican Board of Commissioners president in 55 years, and Republicans have not held a majority of that board for over 90 years.
Read more from Wirepoints:
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.
Could have been Chicago.
Ken Griffin Reveals Plans for Citadel’s Miami Headquarters – WSJ
Democrats in positions of power are good at one thing only — pretending their actions
are helping & have helped ordinary citizens (non govt ees) — thus they are habitual liars. It’s necessary for them, to keep up the charade of their catastrophic agenda.
Jaba the hutt is living proof that you can choose to ignore reality, but not the consequences of it. No surprises here.
Just another lying democrat giving speech to more lying democrats! I hate that I don’t have the means to move out of this lousy state! at least I’m in Southern Illinois!
Can you afford to stay? That’s the real question. The slave has been conditioned by its master to believe that he has no better place to go to. You have two choices. Stay and continue your enslavement or leave and experience a modicum of the freedom intended by the founding fathers. And by the way, when or if you leave, never vote for a democrat ever again.
https://rumble.com/v5bs3l1-voter-if-you-are-black-and-still-voting-for-democrats-in-chicago-you-are-an.html
The facts are against JB lizzo – his EV Yellow School Bus company in Joliet is about
to crash . His Stellantis money grab is in doubt also . That sucking sound is taxpayers money
being wasted
I believe Pritzker knew these venues, among others, were doomed to fail. They did create headlines for Pritzker’s desires to get a Presidential nod and might have worked had Biden not resigned. Now Pritzker, being relegated back to Illinois, will be forced to face the unraveling of many of the programs and will not have a Presidential run to hide behind. The question is though will the media ignore Pritzker’s failures or make them public? Either way stay tuned because Pritzker’s main event is unfolding and it doesn’t look pretty.
It seems many our leaders are being deceived. The Bible has many verses on being deceived. Here are a few. Check out a few verses if you are curious. This state and the world is going from bad to worse in a blink of an eye. All they talk about at the DNC is abortion and bashing Trump. How many are truly naive and believe what they hear? The media rarely if at all covers the truth. Think about the second verse from Timothy 3:13. Romans 16:17-18 ESV / 215 helpful votes I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out… Read more »
Once a society accepts routine lying, as we have, it’s in big trouble, regardless of your faith. And the left has made lying a way of life.
So, what say you about Donald Trump, never one to ever showcase truth as his gut-level basic instinct?
Pretty much every time I’ve mentioned Trump in a column in any meaningful way I called him one of the worst liars. I would say, however, they most of his lies are exaggerations that are at least directionally right, though not always. More importantly, outside of him, I think lying is far, far less frequent on the right than on the left.
Surely you know he expects personal loyalty to his decisions and won’t abide those who disagree to the point where they are “loyal to the U. S. Constitution as their basis. Hence, it seems reasonable that most in his employ will be fellow liars simply as a matter of their own career security. Now, doesn’t that bother you more than a little to think that they will be inclined not to point out his “alternate facts” and what should be done policy-wise as a consequence when it would be based on false assumptions/facts. Those who do won’t last long in… Read more »
Yes, it bothers me. It also bothers me that Dem employees obey the deep state out of fear of their career security, and that Harris/Walz employees will implement their radicalism (by far the most radically left ticket America has ever had), as any administration officials would.
Okay, then. Welcome to Ulcersville. It’s a growing community, I think.
I’m buying stock in Pepto-Bismol ASAP.
That’s what we need to get through this year’s political disputes, someone offering a Pepto talk to bring some relief periodically. Thanks.
It really doesn’t matter because nothing is worse than Trump. Nothing. He corrupted the Republican party, the religious right and the supreme court. The Emperor With NO Clothes will go down in history as the man that personally precluded Republicans from capturing the white house, the senate and the house for decades.
LOL Phil you forget 2016, when he previously captured the White House, Senate and House in a complete sweep. He can do it again.
Your TDS is really, really affecting your ability to think rationally. Seek professional mental help.
Under Trump, the republicans lost the senate, and the house, which they took back by a mush smaller margin than expected and then the white house. I agree with Phil and I would like to get back to a republican party that believes in, and fights for, a smaller and fiscally responsible federal government rather than all this nationalist/populist/protectionist BS.
This is complete nonsense. I’m no Trump apologist but Trump had more Republican votes than any other Republican in the history of the United States in 2020. He brings out the votes unlike any other Republican ever. First, we have to win. I hate to break the news to you but a “a smaller and fiscally responsible federal government” as the primary focus is not popular and failed miserably in 2008 and 2012 and in the 2016 primaries too. Jeb! and Romney and McCain all got their butts kicked. See my “you didn’t build that!” comment earlier today. As for… Read more »
You say you’re no Trump apologist but everything you post on this site tells me otherwise, but I’ll take you word for it. Trump did get the most votes of any republican in history and still lost the election by over 7 million votes. He does bring out the vote unlike any other but apparently he brings out more democratic votes than republican.
The republicans didn’t capture the White House, Senate, and House in a complete sweep in 2016. They won the White House with 3 million fewer votes and they already controlled the House and Senate, but lost seats in both to the democrats: two in the senate and six in the House.
‘Trump did get the most votes of any republican in history and still lost the election by over 7 million votes.”
Did he?
Numerous decisions never ruled against that outcome, and literally no court ruled in his favor as I recall. All that’s left is his unsupported bluster and that of his never-say-die fan base.
Yep. You’re now starting to sound like a Trump apologist.
Given Harris’s unrivaled record of turnover (unprecedented) in her office, why are people working for her not lasting long? You are not shy about large opinions so it would be good to know.
As unbelievable as it may seem to you I am not privy to her staff’s complaints, so you’ll need to bark up another tree.
Let’s stop the child’s game of my daddy is better than your daddy.. Just look at the results of Trump’s policies and that of the Biden/Harris years as our leaders! Why does everybody have to qualify any thing good that Trump has done with the qualification that he’s got sins Let’s let God decide who is the better human being. Let’s see –no wars under Trump, the lowest inflation in 40 years, border better protected, energy independent, knows the difference between a Man and a Woman, against men in woman sports, on and on! OK he exaggerates–which politician doesn’t but… Read more »
‘Let’s stop the child’s game of my daddy is better than your daddy.’ Yet, isn’t that what you’ve done with the rest of your writing? If you really wanted it to happen you’d not have written further.
Promises made, Promises kept. Look it up, if you care to – PDJT delivered more than any president of recent memory. Bur why let facts get in the way of a false narrative – kinda like the ‘fine people on both sides’ debunked nonsense that Democrats and their media lapdogs can’t let go of. Can you let go of the false and debunked narratives? At least come up with some new lies.
Nope, I can’t, and it seems you can’t either.
In Mass this past Sunday, one reading mentioned asking God for wisdom so as not to be foolish. Guess Cardinal Cupich missed that.
You have to understand Marxism is an ideology – facts, and data do not matter. Lying and gaslighting is part of the Marxist ideology. Early evidence of their ideology was when ‘the mask’ was made their talisman.
Wow. Only 818K fewer jobs were actually created than what was reported in the state run media over the past year. You go girl.
Anyone living, or planning to live in Illinois, that believes the lies coming from this Dem one-party state deserves their fate. There’s no point in arguing with people that ignore all the evidence or are too lazy to find the truth. Luckily, WP readers are armed with facts. I hope a growing portion of WP readers will be able to free themselves from Illinois before it’s “too late”. It will be “too late” when a loved one (or yourself) is the victim of a violent crime committed by someone not prosecuted and jailed for former crimes. It will be “too… Read more »
As WP has diligently done for a number of years now, these are the FACTS about IL and they are undisputed. If Democrats like Pritzker were serious, these facts would serve as a ‘clarion call’ to roll up their sleeves and get to work. But instead Pritzker and Democrats wish to double and triple down on their failure. No bailout $$$ coming to IL from PDJT. Watch out taxpayers of IL!!!
JB fell in love with the phrase “follow the science” during Covid. He sure doesn’t believe that when it comes to the results his disastrous progressive liberal policies have delivered. As this article demonstrates, he has driven Illinois into the dumpster, and people leaving the state every year tell you all you need to know. The Dems and their mainstream media propaganda machine are in overdrive mode right now. I am inundated with articles everywhere I go with how Trump is freaking out and melting down while the Kamala-Walz team turns sh!t into gold without even trying. It is relentless.… Read more »
What JB the Hutt really meant was “follow the political science”.