Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker Administration – Wirepoints
May 26, 2026
23 Comments
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
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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.
Downtown Hotels have been renting rooms to thugs and riff raff for drug parties. It is no surprise that Downtown is so scary these days
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/eurostars-magnificent-mile-hotel-hotspot-crime/
I have concerns about the alarming brutal and violent crimes being committed downtown. Although I don’t own a business, I have a solution. I won’t leave the relative safety of the suburbs to visit and spend money in Chicago. I won’t need to the ride the violent gauntlet of public transportation. I won’t be walking the streets risking assaults by wilding crowds of yutes. I won’t be paying the highest sales taxes in Illinois. I won’t have my purchases stolen from me as I try to get safely home. If Cook County ever elects an anti crime States Atty instead… Read more »
Just a reminder to everyone on how quickly downtown has devolved. I didn’t know it at the time because this was the cusp of the pandemic, but in February 2020 I went to a jazz club in Streeterville, left the club before midnight, and walked across downtown to Union Station to catch the last train to the western suburbs. I didn’t think twice about it because I had done similar walks in the past. It was a cold night and I walked down the streets with the most traffic, but there really weren’t many people out at that hour. Having… Read more »
You are having “recency bias” when you suggest its permanent as we all are prone to do! Things thought as permanent usually are forever changing, but maybe not noticeably so in the near future, I admit. Five years might seem forever, let’s say as a guess, but don’t count Chicago out just yet based on short-term events. (Yes, I can almost see those Wirepoints downvotes even before they are entered.)
You could be right. I’ll even give you an up vote. My friends in Chicago think things will get better, and it’s OK to be optimistic. But when I ask my friends what will specifically change that will make things better, these smart people have no answer for realistic change. Wirepoints has repeatedly published what needs to change, but it’s not on any politician’s platform. The current problems seem insurmountable to me for a because of the change in attitude among the leaders and the criminal element. The leaders have the votes, so no reason to change course with their… Read more »
“I feel your pain.” I think your prediction likely isn”t that far off, but all have seen the stock market sports teams and other things take turns few had predicted, so I’m choosing to hold on to hope as surely “the opera isn’t over until the fat lady sing.” As an aside, Pres. O’Bama said that somewhat repeatedly, didn’t he? Hoping it will give you a chuckle I remember Ted Kennedy introducing Sen. Obama as a presidential candidate apparently not knowing how to pronounce his surname correctly, or maybe just giving it with a New England sort of sound. Many… Read more »
Having escaped from the City of Chicago years ago and moving about a hundred miles into the rural western part of the state I get very nervous when I pass over the I90 bridge at the Fox river as we go to meet friends in the western suburbs. There should be signs around there “Warning you are approaching an area where the Purge is active”.