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
-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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.
Nothing is going to work at this time. People are already scared away and that will last for a long time to come.
Jane Byrne tried that years ago
She spent $millions shutting down and transforming State Street
It cost more to put it back to normal
Another boondoggle paid for by taxpayers
I think we have seen this before. How many towns have implemented this very thing in the past only to reverse it years later when it did not work.
The kids skipped history class again. Economic class too. They devoutly attended sermons from the Climate Clerics.
State Street Mall anyone?
$300 Million to wreck a main downtown traffic artery? No thanks.
300 million to block a few streets with cement barriers only in a Democrat run city.
If they really want to revitalize the downtown…make it safe. Make it so, you can walk anywhere and visit any store, restaurant, theatre and have little concern of being robbed, beat up or shot. Let the Police do their actual job in your “Revitalization Zone” without spending $300M the City does not have and make the place – safe.
Sounds like an ideal place for youth to gather, discuss the business of the day, perhaps break a few things and fight with Police without the troublesome interruptions of traffic.
Similar efforts I believe have failed nearly everywhere implemented and ended up being reversed in many.
Co- living units, micro units , what, next SROs.
Banning people downtown would revitalize birds-animals-natural habitats for wildlife.
Did these birdbrains take into the account the crashing failure of the State Street “pedestrian mall” years ago…???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Street_(Chicago)
“In 1979, the downtown portion was converted into a pedestrian mall with only bus traffic allowed. Mayor Richard M. Daley oversaw the State Street Revitalization Project and on November 15, 1996, the street was reopened to traffic…”