-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Wirepoints contributor Jim Iuorio breaks down the dismal jobs situation for both the nation and Illinois. Illinois has suffered a loss of private sector jobs as more residents continue move out and taxes remain high.
For a deeper dive into the numbers, check out Wirepoints’ related pieces:
Illinois job growth? Government job growth masks job losses in private sector.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
Illinois lost another 54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them.
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things are only going to get worse with fed COVID $bucks$ running out for jobs and tax revenue growth in hapless Illinois going forward…….So, do are dem machine heroes try and quickly pass TIER 2 fix now in fall veto session while things aren’t so bad and dopey voter/taxpayers are distracted by presidential race? Or shelve it?…I’m betting on fix with added sweeteners beyond “safe harbor” and dopey voter/taxpayers not even noticing what hit em
High and higher taxes are cast in stone. PPF tells it like it is the state constitution will not change.
That given more and more people will choose to leave and taxes will have to go higher. Illinois is in a debt death spiral. Unless the State could go bankrupt (it cannot) and renegotiate all of the excessive pensions more of the same is the only future on the horizon. The public sector unions run the state and all they want is more money and do not care about the taxpayer.
Yes, PPF is correct that taxes will just keep going up and you are correct that Illinois is locked into a death spiral. Those that say the people of Illinois deserve better are wrong. When people ignore the sanity of the red states and remain in blue state insanity, they have only themselves to blame. Most Illinois residents will eventually regret staying.
As I noted before, people will leave Illinois when they reach their thresholds of pain. For some, the threshold is very high due to the extended family living nearby. Others may have thresholds that can be reached more easily; for example, a threshold that triggers leaving when your residential PTs are 2.5 percent of your property’s value. Most residential properties in the Chicago area aren’t at that level yet, but even Chicago is catching up quickly.