Metro East Sun

Illinois’ toxic mix of high property taxes, few high-paying jobs and an apparently do-nothing government is sending many residents scurrying for the border with Missouri.

A recent U.S. Census Bureau report concludes that Illinois’ Cook County lost more than six times more residents — 21,324 — to outmigration than Missouri did — 3,471 — in a yearlong period ending July 1, 2016.

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, reports based on Census Bureau numbers show Illinois lost 8,520 residents to Missouri iin 2015, the last year for which such reports are available.

Michael Lucci, vice president of policy for the institute, told the Metro East Sun that the decision to make the move and uproot is becoming an easier one for many families.

“There’s a general movement of people from the northwest to the south and west, but in the case of Illinois the situation is worse because residents here have the lowest level of confidence in their government in the country,” he said. “Here the government is totally dysfunctional, ineffective and corrupt, and that all plays a factor in the great flight you’re seeing.”

That seemingly growing phenomenon is actually a reality that’s been manifesting for awhile. Over the last decade, Illinois’ loss to Missouri totaled 73,000, an average of more than 7,000 per year, or 20 residents per day.

They might be following the jobs, Lucci said, arguing that Missouri's right-to-work status makes it much more attractive to business investment. He also points out that Missouri workers might be keeping more of what they earn because property tax rates were 2.25 times lower there than in Illinois last year.

Illinois' nearly two-year budget impasse might play a role as well, Lucci said, and another issue is who is leaving: most are taxpayers earning more on average than those newly arriving over the same period, he said. The groups most often leaving Illinois include millennial workers and students looking for better opportunities.

“Illinois is approaching what you would call a death spiral, where the debt soon will simply become too much to manage,” he added. “Raising taxes even more won’t fix the problem. We keep having people leave because of all the high taxes; raising them on those who stay just will not work.”

A recently released Gallup Poll found that just 25 percent of Illinois residents expressed confidence in their government — easily the lowest rating from among all 50 states.