Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker Administration – Wirepoints
May 26, 2026
19 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.
Metra’s problem is that every train line begins and terminates downtown. It was designed for only one purpose: shuttle hundreds of thousands a day from the suburbs to downtown and back. Which really limits its utility as a public transportation system. Few people in the suburbs need or desire to go downtown because Lori lightfoot destroyed downtown, just as she destroys everything she manages or touches. Ridership had been falling for a full decade before COVID and now it’s basically back to 1960’s or 1970’s levels (although I can’t confirm this with data). There’s really no reason to have a… Read more »
“There’s really no reason to have a Metra train that travels between the suburbs, like a train line along I-294 from Willowbrook to Northbrook” Certainly not to Northbrook with Allstate selling its campus. I do agree with you that the limitation of Metra is all lines go to Chicago and back. With remote work environments and crime in Chicago proper who wants to go back to the city to work? I personally support a client who is one state over from the state I live in and can do so for the foreseeable future. If I can do the work… Read more »
It will never recover! Chicago is lost
“as ridership is expected to gradually recover to 80% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024, Ochab said.”
Wishful thinking if Lori Lightfoot and Kim Foxx are still in office. Who wants to ride the train from Schaumburg, Naperville, Fox Lake, etc. to the city and back and risk getting stabbed, shot, or robbed walking to or from work?
The danger is real. This was a topic of conversation in the office today among staff. They work in the suburbs and none of them had been even in Chicago proper for nearly two years.
I used to work in Da Loop, as in, The Real Loop (I walked under El tracks to get to my last office I worked in) for a off and on period of over twelve years. By the time I left nearly five years ago it was already getting dicey having to run the gauntlet of homeless and schizophrenics wandering around the train station and sitting on nearly every street corner. But I never felt like I’d get jumped or robbed walking to and from work. Now? Watching from another state I can’t even fathom how someone would keep working… Read more »