Illinois is headed for disaster and I don't want to be here for it (Union: attorneys, schools)

[civis]

Originally Posted by mwj119

Here in Massachusetts, people are familiar with the school districts and their prestige in Chicagoland. The area is held in high regard.

I doubt MA folks care about Chicagoland schools, it's too far, and they have much better schools on average.
Check out official testing results here: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/pr...MN&year=2015R3

IL is average at best on school quality, while having the highest school taxes in the nation. MA is at the very top, with taxes 50% less. MA is just much less corrupted, simple.

[Al Hung]

Originally Posted by mwj119

Let's humor this: What are the most notable things that folks from Chicagoland love about the area?

This points hits many marks for my family and I in our current situation, so I'd like to throw in my $.02.

-Wonderful public transportation
-Great public schools (very regional, not across the board)
-Very clean and well kept
-Incredible state funded entertainment and space (museums, parks)

The list can be drawn out deeper, but let's keep it there for sake of discussion.

I'd just add the fantastic selection of good eating - from dives to 3 Michelin stars. There is arguably no better eating city in the US with the Chicagoland area's range and depth.

Sure, a lot of that money falls to poorly run inner city initiatives. Yes, corruption is embedded in local and state government. So, be pissed about that, but you cannot complain about the cost and then love the amenities they provide. Chicago, and more broadly Illinois, are very much run democratically. Government is highly involved, for the good, and the bad.

Speaking for myself, anger is an occasional and relatively smaller portion of our reaction to the state's financial situation. More importantly, we have an ongoing sense of frustration and hopelessness that stems from the fact that it's not just corruption that is embedded in the state government, but also a culture where ineptitude and laziness seems to be accepted and cultivated. So as a democratically run state, do we attribute this to the people doing the electing ("The voters are dumb"), or to the pool from which we elect ("The state creates corrupt, inept and lazy elected officials") or something else? The outlook is not great for folks who'd like to stay and see things change.

To come full circle, the areas taxes are among the highest because the expectations are high. It's a nice area for a reason.

It gets harder to make that argument when looking at taxes compared to other major metropolitan areas. (combined state/local sales, income, property):
Chicago 10.25, 4.95, 2.32
New York 8.88, 8.82, 1.64
Seattle 9.6, 0, 1.09
San Francisco 8.75, 13.3, .81
Boston 6.25, 5.1, 1.21
Atlanta 8, 6, .95
Los Angeles 9, 13.3, .81

While expectations and attractiveness of cities are subjective, you cannot say that natives of these cities wouldn't rate their own city higher than Chicago in amenities right?

[My Kind Of Town]

Originally Posted by civis

I doubt MA folks care about Chicagoland schools, it's too far, and they have much better schools on average.
Check out official testing results here: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/pr...MN&year=2015R3

IL is average at best on school quality, while having the highest school taxes in the nation. MA is at the very top, with taxes 50% less. MA is just much less corrupted, simple.

Where do you see that IL schools are rated average at best? Every list I’ve seen places IL in the top 15 for K-12 public education and firmly within the top half for overall public education ratings including higher education (college) as well, which lags the state’s K-12 ratings primarily due to recent funding woes.

[My Kind Of Town]

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...ings/education

https://wallethub.com/edu/states-wit...-schools/5335/

[damba]

Originally Posted by nealtaylor

I don't understand the #35 ranking for higher education.. U of Chicago and Northwestern are elite schools, UofI is a public Ivy.. Ilinois St, UIC, DePaul, Loyola and Bradley are also well thought of schools.

Sure, NIU, EIU, WIU and SIU have their issues, but not bad schools for second tier

Like all types of school rankings, use with grain of salt.

Cheers

[damba]

Originally Posted by nealtaylor

So you don't think U of Chicago, Northwestern and UofI are great schools??? LOL

And I will match that second group with any other states second group and feel very good about it.

You misinterpreted my comment, including the phrase ‘grain of salt’.

I agree with you 110%. As always though, be critical with all types of rankings.

[CGab]

Flamadoodle Said:


IMO, we need to cap at 1% of home value to compete with Indiana. For example, a $500K home would have $5,000 per year property tax bill.

Originally Posted by damba

The biggest problem is that such modest bills would not cover the costs of schools and services.

Also, the notion of ‘capping home value to compete with IN’ is not so cut/dry.

Yet they do cover expenses in Indiana! Local school districts can try to pass a referendum for more tax dollars, but it has to be voted on by the public. The difference in why it works in Indiana to cap property tax bills at 1% of assessed value and not in Illinois is because Indiana is in the positive and has a surplus, while Illinois is too far in the hole to enact the same.

[CGab]

I grew up in Illinois until I moved a few years ago to Indiana. Best decision I've made in a long time! Most of the people I know have moved out of Illinois in the last few years as well. Some to Indiana and some to other states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee and North Carolina. All moved from Illinois due to the ever increasing taxes, corruption and overall COL. So far no one has regretted their decisions to leave!

[damba]

Originally Posted by CGab

Flamadoodle Said:


IMO, we need to cap at 1% of home value to compete with Indiana. For example, a $500K home would have $5,000 per year property tax bill.

Yet they do cover expenses in Indiana! Local school districts can try to pass a referendum for more tax dollars, but it has to be voted on by the public. The difference in why it works in Indiana to cap property tax bills at 1% of assessed value and not in Illinois is because Indiana is in the positive and has a surplus, while Illinois is too far in the hole to enact the same.

Capping property taxes like IN does is not a perfect solution, unfortunately. There have been some studies illustrating that the reduced revenue ends up lowering the amount of monies available for infrastructure spending and programs/schools in economically disadvantaged areas that really need more assistance.

http://policyinstitute.iu.edu/Upload..._Brief_WEB.pdf

Understand, those property tax rates could never support the cost of doing business/operating schools in most of the Chicago area, even without the pension debacle.

[wase4711]

Originally Posted by damba

http://policyinstitute.iu.edu/Upload..._Brief_WEB.pdf

Understand, those property tax rates could never support the cost of doing business/operating schools in most of the Chicago area, even without the pension debacle.

As long as the unions have a choke hold on schools/city/state employees, they will never find a way to not drain every single dollar they can out of the residents pockets..taxes cant go down, until the unions release their death grip on the wallets of people who live in Illinois, and, since the unions buy off all politicians, that wont ever happen