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 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!
Windflier, I did read the article, but I distrust those that are fleeing their blue states and coming to Texas. I have had too many encounters with Californians that have come here because High Tech relocation and think that they want the Napa Wines because they are “better” than Llano Hill Country wines and they do it “different” or “better” back wherever they came from. They don’t respect the history and culture of Texas, and don’t care about The Alamo, or Sam Houston.
I don’t want to stop good folks from coming to Texas and contribute, but the socialists can just stay wherever they are and live in the piles of crap they have made.
And anyone from New York, LA or San Francisco, Chicago, or Detroit needs to be extra careful. Come to Texas to learn why it is working and try really hard to fit in.
Windflier your being from here you know, Texas is one of the last bastions of freedom in the USA.
Listen to the man. He's laid out a very conservative case against remaining in a state which doesn't respect the most basic American rights, and principles of individual freedom.
That he would flee a state that he has lived in for nearly 60 years and relocate to Texas, because this state upholds those values, tells me that he'll make a very good neighbor.
...your being from here you know, Texas is one of the last bastions of freedom in the USA.
I was born and raised in California, and spent half a century living there. That place is one of the worst violators of our country's basic tenets and founding agreements. I came to Texas precisely because it's one of the last bastions of freedom in the USA. Others like me are doing likewise.
When I meet other refugees from California, it takes me all of 60 seconds to figure out whether they're a transplanted lib, or a fellow patriot. Texas does get both kinds, unfortunately.
Better yet: Let Cook County (and Los Angeles and San FranSicko and New York City for starters) become independent nation(s), then build serious walls and man them with machine guns and heavy weaponry. No visas whatsoever for their residents to visit the restored USA. Use the US Security Council seat and veto to prevent any of them from ever joining the UN as well, until we abolish the UN.
Lived in Kerrville/Ingram in the mid 80’s. Absolutely loved it but had to move back to Illinois due to financial obligations. Been thinking about heading back down for a visit lately.
A lot of folks I know are leaving the Land of Lincoln. The state income tax, other state taxes, licenses and fees and high cost of living (food, etc.) are killing everyone. You see one store after another shuttered, small businesses closed, even in the more affluent counties and suburbs.
Goodbye, Illinois.....goodbye corruption, goodbye commie senator Dick Turban and RINO senator Mark Kirk, goodbye personal income and retirement security attrition, goodbye Rahm Emmanuel, goodbye toll road extortion and goodbye to Illinois' three seasons, July, August and Crummy.
Leni
“Better yet: Let Cook County (and Los Angeles and San FranSicko and New York City for starters) become independent nation(s), then build serious walls and man them with machine guns and heavy weaponry.”
Eeek! Don’t build those walls yet, or I’ll be trapped behind them. Can’t escape yet. Financially stuck here for a while longer, but am planning on escaping when I can afford to. Don’t want to be here if Obama decides to move back to Chicago. What a horror story that will be.
The raise is 350%. Like I said, just too good to pass up...
I too like Pensacola. I lived there for a year while I was at University of West Florida.
Bastards...
Interesting. I suppose that's now the going rate that California businesses have to pay to lure Texans to work there.
I've toyed with the idea of going back to California to make money, but it would have to be a short term, extremely lucrative project, to get me there. I would not consider relocating there - even semi-permanently. The place is just too screwed up in too many ways to mention.
Don't get me wrong. I love my home state, and wish like hell I could live there again, but the state I love no longer exists. That's the problem.
My mother used to say that Texas was the only place on earth where you could stand in mud up to your knees and have the dust blinding you.
Merry Christmas. May God bless you and yours.
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