illinois taxes and people who are moving out of the state (Chicago: houses, theater)

[Tall Traveler]

Originally Posted by Suesbal

An article about the “Illexodus”.
https://reason.com/2020/12/23/illino...secutive-year/

But who is moving? People who feel marginalized by Chi-town’s domination of the state?

My nephew and family left in the past year. He's an engineer and grew up in Colorado and liked Illinois fine but never as much as he liked it back in Colorado. I suspect there's a variety of class of people leaving from tax refugees, climate refugees, opportunity refugees, crime refugees all leaving Illinois for their various reasons.

[Exwyocowboy]

Originally Posted by jasperhobbs

You must miss the state if you keep looking at this forum after leaving so long ago.

Nope. And I haven't been viewing this forum as much as NWI, Wyoming and Montana. Of course I don't live in America anymore - so your problem remains yours

[ToriaT]

Many are leaving not only because of taxes but because they want to live in Red States that reflect more of their attitudes. Go then.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by ToriaT

Many are leaving not only because of taxes but because they want to live in Red States that reflect more of their attitudes. Go then.

I experienced this in pint-sized format when moving to Berwyn about 20 years ago. Everyone who was moving from there to Plainfield and Darien (back then) would be very eager to toute the decline of Berwyn and how we were going to be overtaken by gangs, crime, "Section 8," and possibly astroids, I think I recall. This is that on a macro scale. I found it curious, at first, but came to learn that psychologically, people want to justify their decisions and like to feel superior.

But you also have to keep in mind that many people are now fleeing coastal cities for red states for lower taxes and cost of living. So those folks are going to turn those areas blue. So the gloating may have a limited shelf life with respect to some areas.

[pantstofry]

I left IL in 2018 for a blend of reasons that have been mostly discussed here. I'm not a fan of Illinois' tax rates, and while I moved somewhere with higher income tax, I don't have sales tax and lower (like, less than half) property taxes. But the taxes themselves weren't the sticking point, it was just the endlessness of the corruption and pissing away those taxes for no real benefit to the state.

I also left because I found a better job opportunity - IL doesn't have as many good options in my field (I'd be making a subpar wage here).

Last, I was tired of spending half the year shoveling and dealing with the snow. That sort of combines with the tax part - why get taxed like crazy to live in this flatland with comparatively little scenery? (I still love the city of Chicago and maintain that it's the best looking city from various vantage points.) Where I live now, even though I complain about the taxes there too, at least I can go to the mountains, coast, rivers and wine country within hours, and the scenery is just absolutely night and day compared to IL. I come back to IL regularly because the rest of my family and many of my friends still live here.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by pantstofry

I left IL in 2018 for a blend of reasons that have been mostly discussed here. I'm not a fan of Illinois' tax rates, and while I moved somewhere with higher income tax, I don't have sales tax and lower (like, less than half) property taxes. But the taxes themselves weren't the sticking point, it was just the endlessness of the corruption and pissing away those taxes for no real benefit to the state.

I also left because I found a better job opportunity - IL doesn't have as many good options in my field (I'd be making a subpar wage here).

Last, I was tired of spending half the year shoveling and dealing with the snow. That sort of combines with the tax part - why get taxed like crazy to live in this flatland with comparatively little scenery? (I still love the city of Chicago and maintain that it's the best looking city from various vantage points.) Where I live now, even though I complain about the taxes there too, at least I can go to the mountains, coast, rivers and wine country within hours, and the scenery is just absolutely night and day compared to IL. I come back to IL regularly because the rest of my family and many of my friends still live here.

So, you moved to Portland, OR to escape bad political leadership?

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by BRU67

So, you moved to Portland, OR to escape bad political leadership?

Thinking the same thing, especially Portland. Bend? Maybe. But, Oregon, in general, is not much better than Illinois. Those sky-high income taxes for nonetheless resource-challenged public schools and lackluster infrastructure strike me as unjustified.

[MSchemist80]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

Thinking the same thing, especially Portland. Bend? Maybe. But, Oregon, in general, is not much better than Illinois. Those sky-high income taxes for nonetheless resource-challenged public schools and lackluster infrastructure strike me as unjustified.

The income tax isn't that much higher and when taken along with the property tax it is a better deal.

according to https://smartasset.com/taxes/oregon-...tor#4m4HFo9m15
a single earning $100k has an effective Oregon income tax rate of 7.67% and property tax less than 1% effective [0.9%]. So $3,150 on a $350k property. [10.8% of income total combined]

Better than paying 5% income tax + $10,500 property taxes on that same $350k property here in the formerly great state of Illizuela. [15.5% of income combined] Plus it gets worse if you earn less with the property tax which is highly regressive.

[geebabe]

Originally Posted by Exwyocowboy

We left in 1980 before the state started going bad. Haven't been back since. Don't miss it.

I left in 1977. Yay! I grew up in Chicagoland and was so glad to get the heck out of there at age twenty. I also never went back to live in Illinois, but I did go back to visit my grandma once a year till she died. And yes, taxes drove some of my relatives out of Illinois.

Exwyocowboy - I see your location is Súðavík, as in Iceland? Very cool. I got to live in Iceland for three years ('77 to '80) when the Navy gave me orders to Keflavik. At first it was scary, but I grew to love Iceland. There is a lot I still miss about Iceland all these years later.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by MSchemist80

The income tax isn't that much higher and when taken along with the property tax it is a better deal.

according to https://smartasset.com/taxes/oregon-...tor#4m4HFo9m15
a single earning $100k has an effective Oregon income tax rate of 7.67% and property tax less than 1% effective [0.9%]. So $3,150 on a $350k property. [10.8% of income total combined]

Better than paying 5% income tax + $10,500 property taxes on that same $350k property here in the formerly great state of Illizuela. [15.5% of income combined] Plus it gets worse if you earn less with the property tax which is highly regressive.

But will it stay like that? A check of Zillow does confirm the low property taxes but it also shows a lot of properties for sale. Usually, an erosion of a tax base leads to higher property taxes.

I mean, I'm not trying to be a smarty britches here. I'm just implying that if I was going to leave "Illizuela," Portland certainly wouldn't be in my top five, if you know what I'm saying.