Illinois is headed for disaster and I don't want to be here for it (Chicago: buying, bankrupt)

[CGab]

Originally Posted by Liledgy

I wish they would leave, physically and tbe CD Illinois forum. Good luck where ever you go, I really couldn’t care less. Please post in in the forum related to your new surroundings, I’m sure you’ll find something wrong.

We left Illinois 2 years ago, but yes I stay on the Illinois forums because my DH still works in Illinois and we have many friends and family there. I like to keep updated on what happens there. Unfortunately, to maintain the lifestyle we wanted we left. I can do many other things with the money I'm saving in taxes than give it to the corrupt Illinois government. If things change, who knows maybe we'll move back someday, but I doubt things will change as the state is too far in a hole. I like Illinois and it's too bad we had to leave, but again I'd rather have more money in MY pocket than in someone else's!

[DoseTheClowns5]

Originally Posted by CGab

We left Illinois 2 years ago, but yes I stay on the Illinois forums because my DH still works in Illinois and we have many friends and family there. I like to keep updated on what happens there. Unfortunately, to maintain the lifestyle we wanted we left. I can do many other things with the money I'm saving in taxes than give it to the corrupt Illinois government. If things change, who knows maybe we'll move back someday, but I doubt things will change as the state is too far in a hole. I like Illinois and it's too bad we had to leave, but again I'd rather have more money in MY pocket than in someone else's!

Agreed and those that live in Illinois will continue to have less and less money until their personal finances are utterly ruined. The Illinois state government may not realize it but people don't have an infinite amount of money to pay in taxes. There is a limit where the taxes will just ruined people's lives and it already is for some in Illinois.

[bobsell]

Originally Posted by Sunbiz1

I was amazed to learn Cermak hospital located within Cook county jail is now the largest provider of mental health services not just in the state; but in the entire country.
A huge tax burden for Cook county residents.

This is what happened when the state, for years, cut mental health services until we have six tons of homeless mentally ill people on the streets. Some commit crimes so they can have a place to sleep in Cook County Jail, and look, now they get mental health treatment too.

[DoseTheClowns5]

Originally Posted by bobsell

This is what happened when the state, for years, cut mental health services until we have six tons of homeless mentally ill people on the streets. Some commit crimes so they can have a place to sleep in Cook County Jail, and look, now they get mental health treatment too.

Precisely and social services will continue to deteriorate in Illinois as the state heads into insolvency and Pensions/bondholders get the front row. Social Services don't have a state constitution to protect their funding unlike Pensions.

[jfre81]

Let's say I have an arrangement for living in Chicago that will cost slightly less in rent/utilities than living in Detroit did. I'm sure we'd call that an upgrade, in and of itself. Plus I can ditch my car and an onerous insurance liability for a Ventra card.

I'm trying to see how the dire state of Illinois' finances would have enough of a negative effect on my finances to offset this.

[Bitey]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Let's say I have an arrangement for living in Chicago that will cost slightly less in rent/utilities than living in Detroit did. I'm sure we'd call that an upgrade, in and of itself. Plus I can ditch my car and an onerous insurance liability for a Ventra card.

I'm trying to see how the dire state of Illinois' finances would have enough of a negative effect on my finances to offset this.

It depends. If you rent and your marketable skills are portable, the downside isn't as obvious. If you're a property owner, you're now practically renting your own property from the government.

Between the state pension funds hovering somewhere around 35% funded, the bankruptcy code's lack of provision for a state bankruptcy, and the IL Supreme Court's stupid ruling that locks in government employees' future benefits the moment they're promised rather than when they've actually accrued, the only remaining recourse they have is to keep coming back to the taxpayers for more.

Property owners are already feeling the pinch not just in higher property taxes but how the current and prospective property tax landscape has eroded our equity/home values. It's hard to talk people into paying $8,000 a year in property taxes for an 1800sqft 3-bedroom cape cod when they're used to paying less than half that for a house twice the size.

As for how they'd impact you as a prospective Chicago resident even as a renter... the more money that gets siphoned off to pay ballooning pension obligations and higher borrowing costs because of low bond ratings, the fewer government services you'll receive and the less effective they will be. See: an inadequate transportation infrastructure held together with zip ties and duct tape, a mess of a school system, a police force struggling keep a lid on crime in "good" neighborhoods much less the distressed ones, too many dilapidated apartment buildings and not enough code enforcement, the hugely discounted selloff of public assets to private interests for a quick cash infusion, etc.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Bitey

the more money that gets siphoned off to pay ballooning pension obligations and higher borrowing costs because of low bond ratings, the fewer government services you'll receive and the less effective they will be. See: an inadequate transportation infrastructure held together with zip ties and duct tape, a mess of a school system, a police force struggling keep a lid on crime in "good" neighborhoods much less the distressed ones, too many dilapidated apartment buildings and not enough code enforcement, the hugely discounted selloff of public assets to private interests for a quick cash infusion, etc.

One of the other options was setting up back in Houston. Paying nearly North Side rent to live in a place not strictly more urban than, say, Naperville. No income tax, so property taxation picks up the tab. Drive to everything as if you lived in Naperville pretty much. Libraries and such flooded out last summer that are still closed. A one-trick pony economy with an energy sector that will probably never hire again like it did in the early half of the 2010s decade.

I don't own real estate in Illinois, and have no plans to. That does sound like a losing move to me, at least as things are. I'm a little too transient to settle down on that level anyway, what with my having moved across state lines three times since 2014 or so.

Thanks for your insights.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by jfre81

One of the other options was setting up back in Houston. Paying nearly North Side rent to live in a place not strictly more urban than, say, Naperville. No income tax, so property taxation picks up the tab. Drive to everything as if you lived in Naperville pretty much. Libraries and such flooded out last summer that are still closed. A one-trick pony economy with an energy sector that will probably never hire again like it did in the early half of the 2010s decade.

Too bad Texas is a spread-out one-trick pony, unlike the convenience of Chicagoland with everything in the state (actually the region) within a 1-hour drive, creating all that synergy and keeping Chicago relevant in the declining region as the global hub.

Changing jobs frequently might mean moving all over Texas, where in Chicagoland it's just going to a new workplace in another building. A large source of debt comes from Texas having trouble with its roadbuilding program, turning increasingly to tolls to build greenfield projects. Only problem is that one mile of Texas freeway/tollway is not accessible to as many people as a Chicagoland expressway/tollway.

[NewHomer556]

Originally Posted by DoseTheClowns5

Precisely and social services will continue to deteriorate in Illinois as the state heads into insolvency and Pensions/bondholders get the front row. Social Services don't have a state constitution to protect their funding unlike Pensions.

Colleges and Universities are about to be slammed by the same Pension Intercept that is ruining Harvey Illinois. Pending Bill Would Expand Pension ‘Intercept’ To Illinois University System – Wirepoints Original | Wirepoints
As if the higher education system in Illinois isn't already a huge mess.

[thunderstruck666]

A pension is a promise. Promises are made to be kept. If it means laying off half the current employees and cutting services, then so be it. Eventually current employees are going to figure out the money deducted from their paycheck is not being used to fund their future retirement, it's being used for the current retirees.