(From KFVS-12)
More and more people are moving out of Illinois and it’s leaving quite the financial burden for the state.
According to an Internal Revenue Service report, Illinois lost 81,000 people and $4.1 billion of annual taxable income in 2013.
According to that report, that’s one person and $50,000 in taxable income that left the state every 6.5 minutes just two years ago.
And with the budget impasse Illinois is currently in, some people say it’s only creating more damage to the state’s economy.
“What’s going on with the budget crisis in this state is hurting our state’s economy,” director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, David Yepsen said. “It creates business uncertainty, we know this and so this budget impasse we have is really hurting our state’s economy.”
According to the illinoispolicy.org, since the income-tax hike started in 2011, Illinois continues to see a rise in numbers of people and money leaving the state.
Yepsen said there are many factors that play into why this is.
“There are lots of reasons, they are complicated, but for some people, one issue is the economy,” Yepsen said. “And the tax burden, and the opportunity the state provides, and Illinois’ got some problems on those fronts.”
According to the article, in 2011, 49,728 residents left the state along with $2.5 billion. In 2012, that number grew to 66,922 residents and $3.8 billion. And by 2013, 81,117 residents left the state along with $4.1 billion.
“I think some people aren’t getting their money’s worth out of the taxes that they have. Some of the fastest growing, best places to live have relatively high taxes,” Yepsen said. “In a state like Illinois, with the budget stalemate and the corruption that we’ve had, a lot of people just don’t see where they get their money’s worth out of the government.”
The amount of people leaving comes as no surprise to some Illinois residents.
“I love Illinois, I love the climate, the people, I grew up here and I want it to succeed,” Richard Parrish said. “But given the politics in Springfield and Chicago, it’s not working. They’ve run us in debt.”
“No I’m not, there’s a hopelessness in the state,” Lynn Mowry said. “And we’re in gridlock and we need to get it together.”
Yepsen said when people leave it has several different effects on the state.
“One is, it takes a job, and it moves it someplace else. It takes a talented worker, who pays taxes, who contributes to a community and they move it elsewhere. I think it also creates a bad psychological environment,” Yepsen explained. “People hear folks are leaving, businesses hear this, they worry about losing their workforce. It just creates a bad psychology. The state has to break this psychology and turn things around so people are more optimistic about building a future here.”
Yepsen said in order say in order to move forward, state house politicians need to resolve their budget impasse.
“Once they resolve the budget impasse and get a budget, we still have about five years-worth of spending cuts and revenue increases in order to dig our way out of the worst fiscal crisis in the state’s history,” Yepsen said. “So this is going to take some time to resolve.”
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