Political Rewind: Exodus of Illinois Taxpayers Means Loss of $26 Billion for State
It's always good to be caught up on state politics. Here's an easy guide to what happened this week.
Editor's Note: This article was created by aggregating news articles from Illinois Statehouse News that were written by various Illinois Statehouse News reporters.
Exodus of IL taxpayers means loss of $26B in taxable revenue
Illinois’ reputation for political corruption and government mismanagement could have cost the state billions of dollars and an income tax increase.
Illinois netted a loss of 366,616 tax-paying households between 1995 and 2009, according to a study ofInternal Revenue Service figures from 1995 through 2009 released Tuesday by the Illinois PolicyInstitute, a free-market think tank with offices in Springfield and Chicago.
Those households took with them $26 billion in taxable revenue, according to the study. In 2009 alone, Illinois lost 20,725 households and their $1.5 billion in taxable income.
Ted Dabrowksi, vice president of policy for the institute, said the recent tax hike might have been avoided, if those taxpayers had remained in Illinois.
“If we had more people here generating income, generating sales tax, hiring people, paying income taxes, we’d have a much better fiscal outlook,” he said.
Illinois lost taxpayers to 42 states during the 14-year period of the study, including to the border states of Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Kentucky.
The higher the net loss of taxpayers for Illinois translates into a heavier financial burden for those who remain.
Illinois could shoulder debt from faltering tuition program
Illinois may have to take responsibility for another huge debt.College Illinois! administrators and lawmakers are talking about ways in which the state can rescue the badly underfunded pre-paid college tuition program.
A report released Monday shows College Illinois! with a March 2011 deficit topping $559 million, an increase of $28 million since June 2010. College Illinois! officials began their review in April, but they did not deliver the long overdue report until this week.
State Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, said Illinois may have an obligation to the families who believe their investments into College Illinois! would guarantee a college education for their children.
“I’m not going to use the word bailout,” Durkin said. “But I believe there is going to have to be a discussion as to what the state of Illinois’ responsibility is to this program.”
Erno of the Brook
7:17 am on Saturday, December 24, 2011
Illinois looses tax base? Gee, what about those "persons" who get billions of dollars in tax breaks to "live" here? Like Sears, for example. Wake up people. The aristocracy is eating us.
PKR
8:48 am on Saturday, December 24, 2011
I agree with your general opinion, but with other states waiting to cut our throats to get them we have no choice but to play this game, otherwise we end up with nothing.
Stephen Campbell
3:46 pm on Saturday, December 24, 2011
The loss of Businesses who choose to Exit this Corrupt State is really understandable..The next step for Illinois is: Sock it to the Taxpayers.....Again!
The New Year Brings 214 New Illinois Laws...Read 'em and WEEP!
AbrahamCanfield
1:21 am on Sunday, December 25, 2011
If you don't have health insurance and get sick, the tax payers have to pay for it anyway- so go get health insurance please- search online "Penny Medical" and learn how you can get insurance at discount price.
Joseph O'Shaughnessy
3:53 pm on Sunday, December 25, 2011
Pay a penny price and you'll get penny medical insurance. Don't believe this idiocy. Check with the state insurance department and find out the facts. Get the best deal you can...but it won't be for pennies. Ridiculous. Don't let the pals of the Right Wing fool you. The minute they repeal health care reform, even more than 49 million people will not be able to afford health care insurance.
Joseph O'Shaughnessy
3:47 pm on Sunday, December 25, 2011
This is another Right Wing lie. The idea that we are losing jobs to other states because of tax breaks is exactly what the major corporations want you to think. Even with tax breaks, Wisconsin has higher taxes that Illinois. Wisconsin cut taxes for corporations by cutting the salaries of teachers, firemen, nurses and cops. Remember? Over 500,000 people hate Governor Walkier! Why do you think?
Indiana has privatized everything and everything they privatized costs citizens more and no longer belongs to them. .
All this tax cut nonsense comes from the same people, like Governor Walker and the Koch family and Lehman Brothers executive Gov. John Kasich of Ohio who brought us the $15 trillion national debt, the idea that reducing the taxes of the top people in the country would somehow not drive half the country into poverty which is where they are statistically right now.
Fred Upton, one of the "job creators," the heir to the Whirlpool fortune, took jobs out of his own home state of Michigan to Arkansas for a couple of dollars an hour...thousands of jobs. But then Arkansas...Arkansas!...became too expensive. So they moved the jobs to Mexico.
This is all crap. It is a simple exercise in trying to con the People. The facts are all spun to make you believe what the Right Wing wants you to believe. Believe your own eyes, The jobs are being killed or sent abroad by Greedy billionaires and their corporations. "Think Tank" is just another name for lobbying organization.
bummed1
1:33 am on Monday, December 26, 2011
makes me wonder which part of the government in ILL you work for. Considering the article is for Illinois, the biggest trouble stems from Chicago and Crook county. Together, they consist of the highest tax rate in the nation. It is from here that most people are leaving, and putting the burden on everyone else. Maybe government should forget about politicing and start doing some cuts to save money and face......Hindsite is always a wonderful thing till it slaps you in the face.......Also, Chicago doesnt need a +$100,000 alderman for every 3 blocks or so.......they can save money by cutting that in half......and dont need 6 workers to stand around watching one with a shovel.....this is incompetence that taxpayers are paying for.....Need to restructure and repair what is broken, the govenrment and its spending.
Analyze This
12:39 am on Monday, December 26, 2011
Well.... I'll be leaving Taxinois soon which will leave somebody alse to make up the difference.
Tony
9:03 am on Monday, December 26, 2011
Our Goverment is just to big, there just isn't enough people working to pay the bills for all the goverment employe,s, not to mention the retirement packages they get. I am not talking about the workers ,I am talking about politicans, Senators, congressmen,representitives and thousands of committes, every time you turn around they form a new committee for something, the only reason these jobs exist is to see that the chosen candidates get elected. How often have you seen the wrong candidate get elected and the first thing they do is replace all the workers from the previous administration, this shows you just exactly how important these jobs are.Most of the manufacturing jobs are gone out of the country and state and local goverment have got to get rid of these vote getting armys they finance with our tax dollars or watch Illinois become a ghost town, I for one cannot afford to stay in Illinois to much longer, as soon as my wife retires ,we are gone, if we can get rid of the house.
N/A
3:14 pm on Monday, December 26, 2011
The more I learn about local government finance (in BB, Will Cty & the State of Illinois), the more disgusted I am. There's so much reckless spending, and corruption on every level.
The only thing keeping me in Illinois is my children, and extended family. As soon as my little ones graduate from high school, I'm out.
N/A
3:27 pm on Monday, December 26, 2011
....plus, I want to move where it's nice and warm...can't stand the frigid temperatures anymore.
tony
10:51 am on Monday, February 20, 2012
Illinois may have to enact some laws like Florida did and start drug testing people who are getting public aid . Alot of these people are heading North, if they can afford drugs then we can't afford them.