Posted on 12/22/2011 5:19:29 PM PST by Iam1ru1-2
Former State Senator and Republican Cook County Board President candidate Roger Keats and his wife Tina left Illinois to live in Texas. They bid farewell to their Illinois friends in a Wilmette Beacon article, and with this letter, saying theyre voting with their feet and their wallets.
GOOD BYE AND GOOD LUCK
As we leave Illinois for good, I wanted to say goodbye to my friends and wish all of you well. I am a lifelong son of the heartland and proud of it. After 60 years, I leave Illinois with a heavy heart. BUT enough is enough! The leaders of Illinois refuse to see we cant continue going in the direction we are and expect people who have options to stay here. I remember when Illinois had 25 congressmen. In 2012 we will have 18. Compared to the rest of the country we have lost 1/4th of our population. Dont blame the weather, because I love 4 seasons.
Illinois just sold still more bonds and our credit rating is so bad we pay higher interest rates than junk bonds! Junk Bonds!
Illinois is ranked:
50th for fiscal policy
47th in job creation
1st in unfunded pension liabilities
2nd largest budget deficit
1st in failing schools
1st in bonded indebtedness
Highest sales tax in the nation
Most judges indicted (Operations Greylord and Gambat) 5 of our last 9 elected governors have been indicted.
That is more than the other 49 states added together!
Then add 32 Chicago Aldermen and (according to the Chicago Tribune) over 1000 state and municipal employees indicted. The corruption tax is a real cost of doing business. We are the butt of jokes for stand up comics.
We live in the most corrupt big city, in the most corrupt big county in the most corrupt state in America. I am sick and tired of subsidizing crooks. A day rarely passes without an article about the corruption and incompetence. Chicago even got caught rigging the tests to hire police and fire!
Our Crook County CORPORATE property tax system is intentionally corrupt. The Democrat State Chairman who is also the Speaker of the Illinois House (Spkr. Mike Madigan) and the most senior alderman in Chicago each make well over a million dollars a year putting the fix in for their clients tax assessments.
We are moving to Texas where there is no income tax, while Illinois just went up 67%. Texas sales tax is ½ of ours, which is the highest in the nation. Southern states are supportive of job producers, tax payers and folks who offer opportunities to their residents. Illinois shakes them down for every penny that can be extorted from them.
In The Hill Country of Texas (near Austin and San Antonio ) we bought a gracious[1] home on almost 2 acres with a swimming pool. It is new, will cost us around 40% of what our home in Wilmette just sold for and the property taxes are 1/3rd of what they are here. Cook Countys property tax system is a disaster: Wilmette homes near ours sell for 50% more and their property taxes are ½ of ours. Our assessed home value was 50% higher than the sales price. The system is unfair and incompetent.
Our home value is down 40%, our property taxes are up 20% and our local schools have still another referendum on the ballot to increase taxes over 20% in one year.
I could go on, but enough is enough. I feel as if we are standing on the deck of the Titanic and I can see the icebergs right in front of us. I will miss our friends a great deal. I have called Illinois home for essentially my entire life. But it is time to go where there is honest, competent and cost effective government. We have chosen to vote with our feet and our wallets.
My best to all of you and Good luck!
Far West Texas -- specifically, the El Paso area fits the description.
Desert-like climate. Not windy like West Texas.
Former State Sen. Roger Keats' remarks will fall on deaf ears.
I remember when I was very young probably around 1955, my Father read an article by a well known at the time, journalist. He then told me about it.
It was on how corrupt the state of Illinois was. He said if the states representatives wanted some money they would just introduce some bill which was aimed at some wealthy business. The business would then pay them off to withdraw the legislation.
This was over 50 years ago and it seems to have gotten even more rotten.
Isn’t it amazing, with all the corruption in IL, that Obama managed to graduate from their system untouched? It is hard to believe.
Illinois is a disaster. The property taxes a nightmare.
States run by Democrats are all a joke.
states with ballot referenda should have citizens put two items on the ballot to ammend their constitutions (if not already done so)
1. Abolish or forbid a state income tax.
2. state balanced budget amendment.
It was a RINO Governor with Presidential ambitions named Dick Ogilvie who implemented IL’s state income tax (he promptly lost reelection in a heavily GOP year — 1972).
I’m not sure that part exists!
No. And we have great big honking spiders.
/johnny
Sadly, I’m actually leaving Texas for California. Sigh.
Why? Believe it or not, a job that is just too good to pass up.
A condition of me taking the job was that I only had to spend a year in Cali in the home office, then I can move. I’m thinking back to Texas or maybe Miami...
There has to be a reason everything in Obamas past is sealed. Every single conservative or opponent of Obama has had every detail of their life made public, often by judges who for some reason never allow the same for Obama.
Southern Missouri will be glad to have you :) I am in central MO but as a whole its a nice state outside of downtown KC and north StL. I have been here 15 years and enjoy it.
Excellent!
Is it any surprise to anyone that Chicago breeded the corrupt likes of Ubama and his closest advisors?
Bump
Bump
LOL
Davy Crockett: When he was defeated for another term in Congress said: “You can all go to hell, I am going to Texas.”
Good article.
I went to university in Texas and lived there for a dozen years. A great state, but you need to pick your location. The Hill Country is wonderful, but be selective about the big cities. You may find yourself represented by Lloyd Doggett (Austin) or Sheila Jackson-Lee (Houston.)
The rule is “Stay away from the proximity of Democrats.”
Daniel Boone wanted to go to Florida. He even bought property in Pensacola but his wife refused to live there.
We see this sort of thing in the Pacific NorthWest, and especially in Washington, DC, where a single family and their minions from Chicago managed to bring a new, incredible, unprecedented level of corruption to an already very corrupt city...
Mark
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.