Mike Babcock, the Bethalto Republican who is seeking the House seat in the 111th District, is blaming taxes for Illinois' out-migration.
Babcock was responding to the Illinois Policy Institute's Dec. 1 report, "New IRS Data: Illinois Sees Record Loss of People, Income to Other States," on his Facebook page, saying incumbents are forcing residents out of the state.
"(House Speaker) Mike Madigan and his Chicago Democrat friends have been hard at work as recent data from the IRS proves,” Babcock said.
The institute cited Internal Revenue Service statistics, reporting that “Illinois saw a net loss of nearly 42,000 tax returns to other states on the year,” which signifies a net loss of more than 86,100 citizens.
“That’s an all-time high,” according to the report. “The top 10 states to which Illinois lost people were Florida (12,800 exemptions gained from Illinois on net), Texas (9,400), Indiana (8,200), California (7,600), Arizona (6,400), Wisconsin (6,000), Colorado (4,700), Georgia (4,200), Tennessee (3,600) and North Carolina (2,700).”
If elected, Babcock would replace Rep. Daniel Beiser (D-Alton), who decided not to seek re-election, in the 111th District, which includes parts or all of Granite City, Alton, Bethalto and Wood River.
“I want to go to Springfield to fire Mike Madigan so that we can bring good paying jobs back to the Metro East (area) and prevent more taxpayers from fleeing our great state of Illinois,” Babcock said.
“Illinois’ exodus of people and money is the state’s most pressing policy problem,” according to the Illinois Policy Institute report. “Until lawmakers get serious about addressing its causes, there’s little reason to think the trend will change.”
Alerts Sign-up