Thousands Abandoning Illinois and Its Big Government Debacle

Jon Economy, Government, Market Commentary

There is a mass exodus from Illinois.
According to the US Census Bureau, the Prairie State lost a net 33,700 residents in fiscal year 2017. More people bailed out of Illinois than any other state in the US. And based on calculations the folks over at ZeroHedge worked out, the exodus was even worse than the Census Bureau numbers indicate.
Of course, the net population loss masks the true gross outflow of Illinois residents as it doesn’t account for natural births/deaths. Assuming that Illinois has the same natural population growth as the US as a whole (0.7%) implies that the state lost a staggering ~125,000 residents in aggregate, or roughly 1 man/woman/child every 4.3 minutes.’
So, why the big rush to bail out of the great state of Illinois?
The state is a fiscal mess.
Over the summer, the Illinois legislature pushed through a budget that included $5 billion in tax hikes. Even so, the state’s bond rating continues to teeter just above junk status. Moody’s wasn’t particularly impressed with the new Illinois budget.

This post was published at Schiffgold on DECEMBER 21, 2017.