Anywhere but Illinois

The state of Illinois loses approximately 90 resident a day. Multiply that by 365 and you get 32,850 people leaving the state each year. I believe that to be a conservative number. Some estimate as many as 40,000 people leave the sorry state each year. In 2009 alone Illinois lost an estimated $1.5 billion of net taxable income.

What is driving out residents? Failed public policies, a tax structure which has crushed many hard working peoples opportunity to move ahead. Stiff regulatory restrictions on businesses with redundant policies existing only to drain money from entrepreneurs which could be better spent left in private hands. Lack of affordable housing, with property way over priced only to be taxed at exorbitant rates.

The links below give information on where Illinois residents are taking themselves as well as some of the variety of reasons which push them to pack up and leave. One of which is actually from United Van Lines based on the move rate which is quite high in relation to other dysfunctional states.


www.illinoispolicy.org...



www.chicagonow.com...


I was born and raised in California. My parents are from the Chicago area and left southern California to move back to where they had family and escape the fiscal madness which was in full effect in California in the early 70's. The fiscal madness which has fully engulfed the state of Illinois now and has been in the works for the better part of 40 years.

I remember thinking in the 80's how was the state going to be able to move forward when so many of our state legislators were writing laws which would create what we have now, a fiscal crisis. ie; specifically creating a constitutional amendment which made lucrative pensions for public employees de rigeur! without any opportunity to rework them or abolish them altogether - A fiscal crisis created by short sighted greedy politicians out for themselves at the expense of their constituency.

I want out of this hell hole of a state! However I'm stuck here due to my wife having terminal cancer and interrupting her treatment is not an option. so I am stuck here for now and envious of those with the freedom to leave. In fact we were in the process of buying a small farm in south western Wisconsin when her current diagnosis was revealed to us.

I would love to hear other member opinions on this mess. I know ATS has quite a few of us from this sick state, like Edumakated, Carewemust, Kawrider, to name a few. Do you think this mess can be corrected? Are we too far gone and living in a terminally blue state with all the blue state problems. Progressive problems which get progressively worse as time goes on.
Is there an honest politician in this state whether local or federal. Need I remind folks this is the state of senators Dick (do nothing) Durbin and Tammy Duckworth who are pandering idiots in my mind. I see absolutely nothing in the future for this state to right itself and unfortunately seems to be the opinion of 30+ thousand who have seen fit to leave this sinking ship!

a reply to: americanbuffalo1

Stiff regulatory restrictions on businesses with redundant policies existing only to drain money from entrepreneurs which could be better spent left in private hands.

I swear I was literally (as in a few minutes) about to start a thread outlining some BS my start up company is going through dealing with City of Chicago to show how regulations discourage business / job creation.

I only remain in Hellinois because I love my community for raising a family and my wife's career. However, as soon as it makes sense for us, I am getting the hell out of this liberal fascist state.

Michigan went through that back in the Granholm years when she was driving jobs out of Michigan faster than Holder was selling weapons to the cartels. We were losing many tens of thousands of people a year for a while, some of those are just now coming back since some of the manufacturing jobs have returned in the last few years.

Those same policies are why California and New York are losing people left and right (no pun intended) to conservative states. Liberal policies do not work long term.

It is not a good place to live and I do not see it changing. If you can't leave the state, maybe move toward the southern part of it. It is slightly more tolerable.

a reply to: Edumakated

I knew you would contribute something! Thank You!

It almost seems the powers that be in Crook County want to run your business for you in many respects or just regulate you and fleece you with fees to no end where it makes no sense to build a business.

originally posted by: HalWesten

Those same policies are why California and New York are losing people left and right (no pun intended) to conservative states. Liberal policies do not work long term.

Absolutely!
Liberal policies are nothing but pandering to the lowest common denominator in most respects. Not to solve problems but typically create new ones and some kind of political economic bloat.

originally posted by: americanbuffalo1
a reply to: Edumakated

I knew you would contribute something! Thank You!

It almost seems the powers that be in Crook County want to run your business for you in many respects or just regulate you and fleece you with fees to no end where it makes no sense to build a business.

I started a food business and the regulations dealing with the city are ridiculous. Without going into too much detail, we were approached by a big office building to do a "pop up" this spring. For those that may not be in big cities, Pop Ups are were small business open temporary stores / spaces to sell a product. They work well because the business doesn't have all the associated costs with trying to build out a space and the building landlord gets foot traffic to an unused or under utilized area.

Long story short, a big office building wants us to sell our product one day to tenants in their lobby. Seems easy enough except City of Chicago requires a "Pop Up License". I literally spent almost a 7 hours down at City Hall on Friday trying to get this damned license. Then only to be told, they wanted to classify my product "perishable" by health inspector which then requires a different class of license that is far more complicated / expensive and would basically probably not make it worth the effort.

This alone is laughable because my product is FROZEN ice pops. In other words, it isn't perishable because if it ever warmed up then there is no product to be consumed!

Anyway, they then said we had to now get a portable sink, vomit kit, and a bunch of other super expensive things typically used by real restaurants just to sell some pre-packaged gourmet popsicles. Not only that, the building that wants to host us needs to be inspected and get a license.

Chicago has a lot of regulations that are designed to do two things. First, extract revenue from the business. Second, the regulations are often written to protect crony businesses.

A good example of this is Chicago regulations regarding Food Trucks. We are the only major city with practically no food truck industry because the city has made it practically impossible for a food truck to be profitable with a lot of restrictive regulations. The regulations are written to protect the restaurant industry (an owner sits on city council). In fact, a business local to me that started as food truck is actually taking a case all the way to the Supreme Court right now. Chicago actually requires food trucks to have GPS monitoring to make sure you don't get within 200 feet of a restaurant!

a reply to: Edumakated
I understand the difficulties trying to navigate the red tape which is a stranglehold on small business in Chicago/Cook County. Years back I had a business which I ended up having to start in a collar county because the fees, permits, and legal wrangling was costly, and in most cases unnecessary. It was too much of a loss to start in Chicago/Cook County. Consequently the economy did me in back in 2009.

My next try at starting a business won't take place in Chicago/Crook County or Illinois for that matter. I think this state is a lost cause at this point. I refuse to enable the political class of this state use taxes on my earnings to create more dysfunction. As someone employed in this state it bad enough to navigate the taxes, income, sales and so forth.

I like many residents in this state feel as if we have been backed into a corner!

a reply to: americanbuffalo1

Yup. It is extremely frustration. A lot of people really don't get it unless they've actually put up their own money and tried to start a business. Having to deal with these NPC bureaucrats is enough to make you go postal.

The additional cost; much of it completely unjustified takes money out of the pocket of the business owner. Hurts our ability to hire people.

I mean you literally cannot do hardly anything without first paying off someone in government. Licenses for this. License for that. Gotta have this inspection. Some of it completely redundant with other departments. One inspector says something is correct only to have another inspector say it is wrong.

The property taxes in this state are ridiculous. I am paying $15k a year for a modest house that hasn't gained a penny in value in 15 years yet my taxes have more than doubled in that time frame.

Now we have that fat boy governor trying to tax me more while he gets to hide his inherited billions. Of course, fixing the pension problem requires digging into my pocket... not the pensioners.

a reply to: americanbuffalo1

I'm not sure it can be fixed and that's a huge frustration for me. I actually love this place and want to stay.

I in the middle of the State ( E. Peoria). My Shop and land are paid for and I'm very close to paying off my house. I've had my business and house for sale for a couple years, with offers 1/10th of what I want. The burdensome taxes and regulations on us small businesses is crippling and a driving factor of why I want to leave.

Sadly, we're stuck here to ride out this storm. Unless one of you moronic fools wants to buy a business and house in a failing State.

a reply to: americanbuffalo1

originally posted by: [post=24952157]Edumakated Of course, fixing the pension problem requires digging into my pocket... not the pensioners.

Unfortunately the state constitution needs to be amended in order to fix the pension problem.
Fixing that is as likely as term limits!

a reply to: KawRider9

I have to agree its beyond repair and you and I as well as many others get the unfortunate advantage of living through it and paying for it as well.

a reply to: americanbuffalo1
This might be terrible advice and I'm very sorry to learn the terrible things you're going through...

Happiness is the prize and I go against the grain a lot to achieve it.

I think you qualify and would encourage you to set up a go fund page so loved one is in most comfortable place she can be in her final hour...

Don't know how feasible or off my rocker I am to suggest.
Very sad to see this happen to what I perceive as a loyal patriot.
Prayer for you and your loved ones.

a reply to: Edumakated

My wife and I are leaving Illinois after our youngest son finishes College next year.

The by product of leftist policies: failure

Who woulda thunk?

a reply to: americanbuffalo1

My business is family owned. We went from 12 employees to just my Dad and I. I made a thread about the ramifications of raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour a year or two ago. 50+ percent of the people in that thread called me a greedy/selfish/failed businessman.

We went from damn near One Million dollars a year in business, to a little over one hundred grand a year. Our profit margins are higher now. What do ya think is gonna happen when I drop all my licenses and do what I do for cash? My customer base is huge and going nowhere. The money this $hithole state takes from me is about to stop and I'll continue on. I might be stuck here, but our state is stuck with me screwing the system.

I'm not proud of this, but I'm not ashamed either. I'll provide for my family, not the worthless assbags that put me in this situation.

a reply to: loveguy

Thank you for your thoughts.
Actually despite the situation we find ourselves in we actually are fairly happy. I suppose we look at life a bit more keenly these days and realize for us it truly is the littlest things which make life worth living. Money, politics, current events and the overall disinformation/fear mongering which the media zeitgeist currently employs can cast an ugly shadow when acutely aware. Living in Illinois for us right now is just our reality for the time being.

What is truly troubling is seeing our friends and relatives trying to do things for themselves in this state and having difficulties navigating the system which seems against one trying to create any type of business. Trying and in some cases leaving and making a go of it elsewhere. A few are blind or ignorant to the reasons with which has created these hurdles. There are a few successes of course, and it was due to money and connections which allowed for that.

a reply to: americanbuffalo1
Much respect.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Edumakated

My wife and I are leaving Illinois after our youngest son finishes College next year.

Yeah, I'd love to pack it up and leave. The sad thing is I actually like where I live, but the liberal attitudes have gone too far. I also don't feel like we are getting good value for the taxes anymore.

I'd like to move south.

I really want to simplify my life. Really ready to just say screw it and retire. Sell everything. Get an RV and just explore the country. Unfortunately, young kids will make that impossible for at least another 15 years.

I'm a fourth generation Illinois resident with a wife and 2 kids. We run a successful small business. But we've hit a point where we can go no further until we get the hell out of here. This godforsaken state is bleeding us dry! So in less than 2 months, we'll be living in the beautiful and amazing state of Tennessee. Good effing riddance!

For anybody who might be skeptical about how much Illinois sucks, take a look at how the esteemed Mayor Daley sold Chicago and its residents & businesses up the river as he walked out the door (with a double pension) -

Mayor Daley's Unbelievable Parking Meter Deal