Like many millennials who work in Washington, D.C., I returned home for the holidays, a small town in Illinois. This year, the holiday season felt particularly different, though I couldn’t immediately figure out why.
After reading my favorite Illinois newspaper, I realized what it was: Many of my friends and family are leaving the state.
Although it’s normal for people in their 20s to leave their hometown, many move to nearby towns or to the big city in their state, in my case, Chicago.
But last year, Illinois lost more residents than any other state: an astounding 37,508 people. It was one of only eight states to lose population.
This isn’t a new trend: Illinois lost population in both 2014 and 2015. The dubious streak has caused Illinois’s population to reach its lowest levels since 2009. Even more alarming, 114,144 people voluntarily left Illinois in 2016, while only 30,934 chose to move in.
Many of the woes can be traced to Chicago, which saw its first population decline since 1990. But why have residents been leaving the Windy City? It certainly hasn’t been the beloved Chicago Cubs, who won the World Series for the first time in 108 years. The problem is a combination of high taxes, low opportunity and the social ills that come with those problems.
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Illinois has some of the highest taxes in the nation, ranking fifth worst in local and state tax burden according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. The average Illinois taxpayer pays $5,235 in state and local taxes and works until April 29 to pay their state and federal tax bill. Even with this incredibly high tax rate, Illinois state government has been constantly gridlocked while attempting to balance a budget to pay for an unsustainable pension system.
The states following Illinois in population loss, Connecticut and Vermont, fair little better. Connecticut ranks second in state tax burden while Vermont ranks 21st. When companies like General Electric leave Connecticut for the “low tax” state of Massachusetts, is it any wonder residents follow suit?
Many of these taxes are only a problem if you happen to find a job. The unemployment rate in Illinois was a staggering 5.6 percent in November 2016, while the national rate dropped to 4.6 percent. Compared to its neighbors, Illinois fares even worse with Indiana’s unemployment rate at 4.2 percent, Wisconsin’s at 4.1 percent and Iowa’s.
A sluggish economy isn’t just caused by a high tax rate: It’s also due to a failing school system. Although Illinois has world-class public and private universities, the K-12 public school system, in Chicago in particular, is leaving students ill-prepared for life.
In the lowest-performing tenth of elementary schools in Chicago, only 25 percent of students met standards on state exams, compared to 82 percent of students across Illinois. At the high school level, the problem is worse with only 5 percent of students at the lowest performing schools meeting state standards, compared to 51 percent of students meeting standards across the state. Not surprisingly, this leads to a dropout rate 12 percent higher at these worse schools compared to the rest of the state.
With little economic and educational opportunity and the high crime that comes with it, Illinois and Chicago policies are simply failing their residents. Is it any wonder then, that so many are home only for the holidays?
Illinoisans aren’t moving just anywhere, but to states with good education, opportunity and safety. Texas has attracted the greatest number of residents, followed by Florida, Indiana, California and Arizona. Warm weather is one factor, but the many residents moving to states like Indiana and Wisconsin, where my brother now lives, show that economic opportunity is also a major driver.
If Illinois wants to reverse this troubling trend, major reforms are needed. Gov. Rauner, a Republican, has put forth a bold plan for reform but needs a cooperative legislature. If Illinois doesn’t get its act together soon, I fear holidays in my home state will only get less and less jolly.
Eric Peterson is a senior policy analyst at Americans for Prosperity. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
