Rock Island Today

A recent poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale indicates that Illinois tax rates are a big factor in residents’ desire to move out of the state.

The results hit on an important campaign issue in Rock Island County, Brandi McGuire, Republican candidate for the District 72 state House seat, told Rock Island Today.

“There is nothing surprising about the poll showing large numbers of people wanting to leave Illinois,” McGuire said.

Property taxes are a prominent issue for Rock Island County voters, but local lawmakers aren’t listening, McGuire said. In January, a judge ruled that the county doesn’t have to ask voters for permission to build a new annex for the courthouse, in a lawsuit that was sparked by the county pursuing the plan even after voters rejected it twice. The referendum called for an increase in property taxes.

“I would hope that the widespread publication of these poll numbers would have an impact on state lawmakers to rein in or cap property taxes. However, it does not seem that the majority of Illinois lawmakers pay attention to such polls. Rather, they pay close attention to their own re-election poll numbers,” McGuire said.

In the poll results released Oct. 10, 47 percent of respondents said they want to leave the state, while 51 percent want to stay. Whether they would actually leave was another matter. The poll showed nearly 80 percent of registered voters said it was unlikely they would leave the state in the next year.

Why leave? More than a quarter of those who took the poll cited taxes, followed by the weather, government and jobs.

“There are lots of reasons why people want to leave,” David Yepsen, director of the Simon Institute, said in a statement. “Not much can be done about the weather, but policymakers can do something about perceptions of the quality of services, tax competitiveness, tax fairness, and educational and job opportunities. People often don’t feel they get good value for their tax dollars, and with frequent stories of public corruption or the large numbers of governmental units, it’s no wonder why they feel that way.”

The poll showed Illinoisans under age 50 are more likely to head for the exits. More than half of millennials — those under 35 years old — and residents between age 35 and 50 want to leave the state. Only 29 percent of voters over age 66 want to leave.

“Policymakers argue over whether people are leaving or not,” Yepsen said. “The most troubling finding in this poll is that so many younger people are thinking about it. That’s the state’s future.”