Former State Senator Says ‘Goodbye, Illinois’A scathing article on Illinois politics

Godfather Politics ^ | December 22, 2011 | Former State Sen. Roger Keats

[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 they’re “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 can’t 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. Don’t 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 County’s 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!

[King_Corey]

I pray they are conservatives and not bringing liberal ideas here, and come ready to contribute. If so, Welcome to Texas.

[PapaNew]

No income tax. That sounds sweet. Maybe there’s a corner in northwest Texas that’s no so hot and humid.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Wow, what a powerful article. He brings up great points.

If I recall correctly, a former office holder in California, who had run for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in California, recently left California to relocate to Texas.

Well, it says something if people are leaving “blue” states to move to “red” states. How many people are leaving Texas to move to Illinois nowadays??????

[hoosiermama]

FYI and to pass on

[CrazyIvan]

He forgot that Il. is the only state with no concealed carry. I sympathize with him. I have been here my whole life, but it's just getting too difficult to live here.

[neocon1984]

After 50+ years in Chicago IL, I now reside in another, less corrupt Midwestern state. It’s not just about somewhat better tax rates and less bureaucracy, it’s about Illinois government workers, politically connected incompetents always trying to take more money from you.

It’s a government Mafia state.

[Graybeard58]

We’re living in NotChicago, Illinois and feel the same way he does, it is just taking us a while to move. My wife and two kids and I are probably heading for southern Missouri, we are further delayed by what is turning out to be a very lengthy adoption procedure to get our two children. We are just plain sick of corruption in Illinois politics, which means democrat politics, which creates high taxes and poor job creation atmosphere.

Illinois is a long standing national joke, right up there with California and New York, New Jersey and a few others. Your opinion may very but I believe Illinois is the absolute worse.

[wildbill]

The town of Kerrville in the beautiful Texas Hill Country has often been cited in those “ best place to live” lists and gets a lot of emigrants from other states for retirement.

And he won’t miss the four seasons in the Hill Country. It can even get a little chilly at night if you sleep with the window open.

Welcome Senator. You’re gonna love Texas.

[Osage Orange]

And guess when Obama cut his teeth?

[Theodore R.]

Too bad the people of IL have been so uninformed and wrong for so long

[susannah59]

Northwest Texas is not at all humid, at least not to me (I was raised in the Southeast and in over a decade here I've seen only a handful of days I would call a bit humid). It does get hot here, but it tends to cool off nicely at night.

As the old line goes, "it's a dry heat." Yes, if the temperature is over 100, it's hot regardless, but I find it much more bearable.

The wind and the landscape take some getting used to, but I do just fine with it now. Well, except for the blowing dust at times!

[susannah59]

If he and his wife are conservative, they are welcome in Texas.

He was a bit more polite to the folks he was leaving than Davy Crockett: "You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas."

[txhurl]

GTT bump

[vetvetdoug]

There are a lot of people in Sangamon County near the river and around Riverton that feel the same way. They are good country horse folk that work hard and efficiently but are being taxed into oblivion. Maybe the crows need to own New Jersey and Illinois and the rest of the people can move elsewhere. The Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, the Ohio River can keep that place isolated from the rest of the world. Can't help St. Louis though.

[hadaclueonce]

I am in favor of letting Cook county IL be there own state.

[ducttape45]

Only 18 congressmen in 2012? That means their electoral voice becomes even smaller.

[raybbr]

There are some things I miss about Chicago. The people, the food, clubs, etc. The rest has become a nightmare.

[PapaNew]

What part of Texas has minimal wind and minimal humidity?

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*