Illinois Democrats are so high on their unleashed and unchallenged political power and self-righteousness, they're blinded to the disgrace they continue to heap on the good people of Illinois. Who doesn't cringe when they read in the nationally-distributed Wall Street Journal, "As if Illinois voters didn't have enough to be angry about, this week their new Governor announced plans to raise state income taxes by 50% ..."
The the WSJ gives more details about the embarrassing state of our state:
This is a state that does almost everything wrong economically. It is not a right-to-work state and is thus heavily unionized, repelling new business investment. It has the fifth highest minimum wage among the states, the fifth most trial-lawyer friendly legal code, the sixth highest workers' compensation costs, and the 11th highest property taxes. It has one of the highest inheritance taxes, at 16%, so retirees flee to states with no death tax, such as Florida and Arizona. A rare Illinois advantage has been its relatively low income-tax rate, but that will shrink or vanish under Mr. Quinn's increase.
Things are sooo bad ...
Over the last six years the state's revenues climbed by $7 billion, but the flush times led to flush spending. Per capita state expenditures after inflation have climbed to $4,700 in 2008 from $3,200 in 1998. The state now spends roughly $13,000 per public-school student in Chicago, but the money has done little to reverse a dismal high school graduation rate of 51%. The charter schools in Chicago take a demographically similar group of students and achieve 77% graduation rates, but Democrats have put a cap on more charters.
The only good point is that the WSJ piece mentions our friends at Illinois Policy Institute ... and they think Illinois voters deserve something better, except we keep on voting "the bunch" into office. That one's the keeper.
