“We now know states didn’t suffer the heavy revenue blows they expected in 2020,” noted Wirepoints, a research group. “Trillions in federal relief funds led to a surge in personal incomes, buttressing tax collections. As a result, overall state tax revenues across the country in calendar year 2020 declined less than 1% compared to calendar year 2019. That’s a far cry from the combined 12% drop in revenues originally projected for FY 2021.”
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.