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.
So much blatant dishonesty in this article. Among other things, that Wharton study he quotes from is eight years old and its about all immigration, not the hordes of illegals in the past few years. https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2016/1/27/the-effects-of-immigration-on-the-united-states-economy. And he claims there are just 35,000 migrants in IL. That’s just the asylum seekers bused in. There are over 400,000 undocumented migrants here! https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/unauthorized-immigrant-population/state/IL. And he says 94% of all state spending on services goes to the core areas of education, health care, human services and public safety. Hello, over 20% goes to pensions alone. Finally, he says, “The vast majority of migrants —… Read more »
When I read articles over at RealClear I don’t see them commenting about the value of the article. Yet here you are putting your thumb on the scale. Something you told me that you don’t have time to do. lol
I guess you don’t recognize your own blatant dishonesty.
Oh, please. We routinely comment on what we post but only in the comment section or in our own, separate articles and I have never said otherwise. The articles we post are chosen fairly, that was the point about the comparison to RealClear. You’ve lately really been blowing whatever credibility you had. Go read somebody else’s curation about Illinois if there’s a fairer one.
True. I formerly read PPFs comments with genuine interest. No more.
Again time to cue Ann Coulter’s article explaining how Venezuela’s government came to be: the result of the people who repeatedly voted in Chavez. One topic often glossed over when discussing Chavez was his embrace of racial politics which today we would refer to a Critical Race Theory. He proclaimed himself and his supporters the victims of racism and oppression from the lighter skinned elites and vowed to give them the rich people’s land and property. He instituted land reform by nationalizing farm land and redistributing it to landless poor, who have no idea how to farm, and the country’s… Read more »
Too bad one has to be a Daily Herald subscriber to read the full article.
People who aren’t tech morons are able to read it without a subscription.
It says just raise taxes to cover migrants, no problem, because there are just 35,000 migrants here who are legal because they are seeking political asylum. In other words, it’s utter bullshit.
Yes, he claims the net result is increased revenue from migrants working, but seems to ignore increased costs in education, healthcare, etc. He also misrepresents the Republican Naperville city councilman, who asked for volunteers to take in migrants, which was quickly shot down, like Martha’s Vineyard. He says the man’s idea was not to pay for migrants, which I never read. Naperville voluntarily taking in migrants? Ha, would never happen
I can’t find the article now, but yesterday I read that in New York, rents have spiked in the past several months for Class C apartments (aka slums) due to an unprecedented increase in rental applications from illegal immigrants leaving the shelters.
This will come to Chicago soon enough too. I promise. It’s probably already happening. Few want to talk about why inflation is stubbornly high – especially in food and housing and health care – which I personally believe is caused by 10,000,000 new illegal immigrants competing with natives for limited food, shelter and health care.
NEVER GOT ANY HAND OUTS………WHY ARE THESE LAW BREAKERS GETTING THEM???
No money for idiots that type in all caps.
Illinois will definitely need to collect more tax revenue in the future but somehow I think even Illinois Democrats know that raising taxes to pay for migrants will probably get them booted from office. Then again, if taxes are raised for migrants and they aren’t thrown out it will only mean that the voters approve.
Not migrants, ILLEGALS period.
Since I don’t know each persons legal status I’ll leave it at migrants. The term migrants covers everyone. I don’t think the voters want to spend this type of money regardless of the migrants legal status.
— Then again, if taxes are raised for migrants and they aren’t thrown out it will only mean that the voters approve.
My favorite of all your circular arguments.
— Since I don’t know each persons legal status I’ll leave it at migrants.
PPF, they’ll all illegal. All of them. You’re being willfully ignorant.
Or are you being willfully malicious? Without proof one way or another beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You may well be far, far more right than wrong. But, you did say “all.” Governmental records and/or trials have to determine individual status.
Governmental records are often forged. Trials start with a presumption of innocence. There are not enough lawyers and courts and juries to resolve the status of millions of individuals or even the authenticity of records. The rent moratorium during COVID led to hundreds of thousands of tenants who could well-afford to pay rent to stop paying it while bankrupting landlords. The notion that water is a human right motivates many urban dwellers to stop paying their water bills and bankrupt water systems and, perhaps, default on bond payments. Arson and murder and assaults have killed many urban downtowns. Selective enforcement… Read more »
So, society should be ruled by one person’s gut feeling about another person? That seems to be what you are advocating. All that autocratic “authority” has to do is find some sufficient number of people with a given commonality who do X and soon enough he’s convinced all such people will do it and that having to make individual judgments is a waste of time and resources. I think the world has seen enough of that in history, don’t you? If you were a person judged that way I’ll bet you’d change your point of view.
“Invaders” works better.
“Then again, if taxes are raised for migrants and they aren’t thrown out it will only mean that the voters approve.” Not true. Lots of academic research showing how often voters elect people who don’t follow policy positions those voters want. I need to write about that at some point. And here in IL, it’s true in spades. Government is wildly out of sync with most voters: https://wirepoints.org/illinois-is-a-moderate-state-its-progressive-leaders-are-out-of-touch-wirepoints/
Government is wildly out of sync to the voters yet the voters keep electing the same people. Until the voters demand change they are complicit.
… and the more voters the better, right? Illegals, minors, prisoners, unhoused street people, dead people [what’s the euphemism? “former living”?], mentally ill [in or out of custody]? Voters are a lot like jurors. They are the consensus recourse for issues that our political and legal systems can’t otherwise resolve. Voters have brought us Huey Long and Jesse Ventura and legislators in states that seceded in 1860. Not to mention sanctuary cities. We may well have no alternatives (per Churchill) and voters and jurors aren’t necessarily free from bias and self-interest. However, it’s a long leap from an election result… Read more »