Led by Gov. JB Pritzker in national TV appearances, the political establishment in Illinois and Chicago is listing its triumphs as the Democratic National Convention in Chicago nears. Mayor Brandon Johnson, too, is “looking to spread his vision for progressive governance on everything from raising wages for workers in Chicago to achieving a ceasefire in Gaza,” as The Nation recently put it.
Through a progressive’s lens, successes are real: a higher minimum wage, establishment of the state as an abortion haven, a major capital budget, aggressive green energy mandates, welcoming and sanctuary policies for migrants and more. We publish those claims as they are made. Illinois may indeed be “the most progressive state in the nation and damn proud of it,” as Gov. Pritzker says.
But there’s another side to the story, thousands of pages long, of severely crippling results of progressive policies.
What follows is a summary of the other consequences of progressive policies for Illinois and Chicago. Each point is documented by facts and data. Links are to original sources or to Wirepoints reports that cite the original sources.
Fleeing population and tax base
Stagnant economy and job market
Expensive and broken education system
Rampant crime
Suffocating taxes
Pension crisis ignored
Massive spending on illegal immigrants
No equity – a failure by their own standards
Economic policy centered on statism and doomed focus on renewable energy
Free speech under assault and autocracy reigns
Disastrous pandemic management yet no accountability
Still more
For still more details, see our page linked here collecting all our pertinent articles and research grouped by topic.
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Fleeing population and tax base
The Census Bureau’s decennial count (2010-2020) showed Illinois was one of only three states to lose population over the decade. The bureau’s latest estimates show Illinois has lost another 240,000 in population since 2020.
More than 1.5 million people on net have moved out of Illinois since 2000 according to IRS migration data. Illinois would have taken in an estimated $3.6 billion more in income tax revenue in 2022 alone were it not for that exodus.
IRS migration data shows Illinois netted a loss of 87,000 residents and $9.8 billion in adjusted gross income in tax year 2022. Illinois’ losses were the nation’s 3rd-worst, behind only New York and California.
Illinois had 24 U.S. House Representatives after the 1970 Census. Today it has just 17.
Stagnant economy and job market
Illinois’ current unemployment rate of 5.0% is 3rd-worst in the nation.Chicago is ranked dead last among major cities for creating new millionaires.
Illinois ranks 45th through 47th in the country in economic metrics used by the state’s own Commission on Government Accountability and Forecasting to compare itself to other states: GDP, employment and personal income.
Illinois is a “net taker” from the federal government and has been since around 2019.
Illinois’ credit rating and budgets were greatly assisted by the nearly $200 billion in covid funds distributed by the federal government to the state’s public and private sectors.
Illinois has created no net new employment in five years – the nation’s 3rd-worst performance. Fewer people are on Illinois’ employment rolls today than when Gov. Pritzker took office.
Annual state claims to “balanced budgets” aren’t true because, among other reasons, Illinois consistently underfunds its pension contributions by about $5 billion every year.
Expensive and broken education system
Illinois has dismal student outcomes. Just 35% of students statewide can read at grade level and only 27% are proficient in math. It’s worse for minorities: Just 16% of black students and just 22% of Hispanics can read at grade level. In all, 1.2 million Illinois students can’t read at grade level.
Illinois is spending nearly $24,000 per student in 2024, up more than 30% compared to 2019.
Only 25% of Chicago Public School students can read at grade level and just 18% can do math. Yet CPS graduates 83% of its students. Chicago Public Schools spent nearly $30,000 per student in 2024, up 39% compared to 2019.
Not a single child tested proficient in math in 67 Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 32 schools.
The state’s accountability metrics are broken. Ninety-seven percent of teachers statewide are rated “excellent or proficient” and 83% of schools are rated “exemplary” or “commendable.”
Based on Census Bureau data, Illinois spends the most per student of any state in the Midwest. Illinois’ total per student spend grew 98% between 2022 and 2007, the 3rd-largest increase of the nation’s 50 states.
Illinois’ “evidence-based” school funding formula has failed. After seven years and $8.5 billion in dedicated funding to the formula, the number of students reading at grade level has not improved.
While 19 states have adopted some form of school choice since 2023, Illinois politicians last year killed off the state’s only choice program: a small tax-credit scholarship.
Rampant Crime
Chicago has led the nation in total homicides for 12 years in a row.
Pritzker has said “violent crime in the City of Chicago … has been coming down for three years, in particular, over the last year” and frequently made similar claims. In truth, Chicagoans are suffering under a six-year high in violent crimes.
Thanks to crime levels and overwhelmed police, if you’re shot, robbed or assaulted in Chicago, there’s a 50/50 chance there will be no police to respond to your 911 call.
Since the implementation of the controversial SAFE-T Act which eliminated cash bail, Cook County’s jail population has fallen to its lowest levels in 40 years.
Prosecuting criminals in Chicago and all of Cook County is in the hands of Kim Foxx, widely regarded as among the most pro-criminal prosecutor in the nation and notorious for dropping charges against actor Jussie Smollett. She was endorsed in both her election and reelection to Cook County State’s Attorney by the entire Illinois ruling progressive establishment.
Suffocating taxes
Illinoisans pay the nation’s highest property taxes, the country’s 2nd-highest gas taxes and the 2nd-highest corporate income tax rate. Property taxes in Chicago are particularly staggering, with the highest effective commercial property tax rate (5.37%) among the nation’s biggest cities.
All told, Illinois’ total tax burden ranking ranges from worst to 11th worst, though Illinois ranking probably has worsened since the last studies were done. At least 26 states have recently cut taxes while Illinois raised its by over a billion dollars.
Pritzker’s 2025 budget disregarded kitchen table issues that actually matter, such as gasoline prices, property taxes, quality of education, inflation and jobs.
Kiplinger has ranked Illinois the “least friendly state” for middle-class families.
The south and southwest suburbs of Chicago were hit particularly hard by residential tax bills sent in July, sparking fears of a tax revolt. The median residential bill jumped by 19.9%, to $6,117. Most stunning of all, in 15 south suburbs median tax bills jumped by anywhere from 26% to 122%.
Pension crisis ignored
Illinois has the worst pension crisis in the nation under most metrics.
The unfunded liability for Illinois state pensions grew from $137 billion in 2019 (when Pritzker took office) to $142 billion in its most recent report.
Chicago’s worst-in-nation pension crisis is worsening. Chicago’s pension shortfall across the city’s four major retirement funds rose to $37.2 billion in 2023. Add in the teachers fund, and Chicagoans are on the hook for $53 billion in unfunded pension liabilities – over $45,000 per Chicago household.
The number of Illinois public sector workers or retirees with pension benefits or salaries exceeding $100,000 per year has jumped by 50% since 2018, now at 140,000.
Illinois and Chicago have the nation’s worst credit ratings, largely due to the pension crisis.
Pritzker and other Illinois officeholders refuse to consider an amendment to the state’s constitutional pension protection clause, dishonestly claiming that the federal Constitution would be an impediment. Other states prove it’s not so.
Massive spending on illegal immigrants
The true number of illegal immigrants in Illinois is likely 500,000 to 680,000, imposing a total taxpayer cost of about $6 billion per year.
The City of Chicago has spent about $200 million of its own money on migrant care since 2022.
In addition, Chicago schools are expected to spend up to $410 million extra this year for migrants.
No Equity – Failure by Their Own Standard
By their own primary measure of success – “equity” – Illinois and Chicago have failed miserably. Study after study, looking at equity from many angles, says progressive equity efforts in Illinois and Chicago have flopped miserably.
The biggest pension in the state, for teachers and school administrators, is structurally set up to shift money to the richest school districts. Lawmakers could easily fix that but don’t.
Economic policy centered on statism and doomed focus on renewable energy
Virtually all major, recent Illinois announcements of new or expanding Illinois employment centers were induced through taxpayer subsidies. Most new major projects subsidized by the state are renewable energy projects, which are the centerpiece of Illinois central planning. They include subsidized facilities for Stellantis, Rivian, Lion Electric and Gotion.
The Gotion project is particularly controversial. The Chinese company with multiple ties to the Chinese Communist party is scheduled to receive over $8 billion in state and federal subsidies for a plant that will cost the company less than $2 billion. The project is widely opposed by the public and is for manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles, demand for which is languishing. Full reporting on those facts and the rest of the Gotion controversy is collected in our special section here. Pritzker has expressly refused to answer any questions whatsoever about the project.
Illinois is aggressively pursuing a goal of having one million EVs on the road by 2030, but Illinois would have to quadruple its current adoption rate for EVs to meet the state’s goals.
In 2021, Illinois passed legislation to push 50% of its electricity production to renewable sources by 2040 and 100% from clean energy sources by 2050, which became law last year and was called by one of its sponsors “the most aggressive, most progressive climate bill in the nation.”
Partly as a result of those policies, electricity costs have already risen 50% in much of the state with high risks of brownouts. As in most of the nation, many planned renewable electricity projects are now on hold because grid connections don’t exist, which may be prohibitively expensive to fix.
Last month the state announced a major bet on quantum computing. Illinois will provide $200 million to PsiQuantum for a Chicago projected to create just 154 jobs. The state is also contributing another $500 million to the industrial park for quantum computing in which the facility will be located, which the state says will result in “thousands” of jobs. However, those additional jobs are entirely speculative at this point.
Most recently, Lion Electric, an electric school bus maker that last year built a new Illinois plant with state incentives is struggling for survival. The project was highly touted by Pritzker, who projected 1,200 jobs by 2028. Lion also benefits from the $5 billion subsidy program for electric school buses championed by Vice President Kamala Harris, which is also failing.
Free speech under assault and autocracy
Illinois has established itself as the state most hostile to First Amendment free speech rights. A list of examples is linked here. In one instance, a federal judge labeled a law the state was trying to defend as “stupid and likely unconstitutional,” so Attorney General Kwame Raoul gave up on the case.
Illinois’ highly touted “ban on book bans” is an empty, dangerous and hypocritical stunt. It delegates censorship powers to libraries and to an unelected national association headed by a self-described Marxist. It conflates questions of age appropriateness with censorship, and is a transparent attempt by the leaders of the cancel culture to wrap themselves in the flag of free speech.
Pritzker has expressed views particularly hostile to established First Amendment law, saying on CNN that what the government deems to be lies should be subject to criminal prosecution.
The University of Illinois maintains one of the most onerous “loyalty oaths” for faculty, demanding proof of their active commitment to wokeness.
Illinois Congressmen have implored social media to do more censorship in at least five separate hearings where tech platform CEOs were grilled.
During the covid pandemic, Illinois was ruled under 45 consecutive monthly emergency orders giving unparalleled power to the executive.
For illegal immigrants, Illinois was ruled under 24 monthly emergency orders. The proclamations broadcast inducements for illegals to come, including “transport, emergency shelter and housing, food, health screenings, medical assessments, treatments, and other necessary care and services.”
Illinois this year retroactively changed the rules on candidate slating for General Assembly elections, which targeted Republicans only. A lower court ruled against the law, which is now on appeal.
Most recently Illinois passed a ban on employers from discussing “religious or political matters” at meetings where worker attendance is mandatory. Violations will be punishable with fines up to $1,000 per employee. It’s patently unconstitutional and absurdly overbroad.
Disastrous pandemic management yet no accountability
A full list of covid response failures by the State of Illinois and City of Chicago is here, many of which were obvious errors even as they were being made. No remorse has been shown or accountability imposed.
That list includes massive fraud in pandemic relief, suppression of dissent and conflicting data, unfounded projections portrayed as “science” and willful indifference to the rule of law.
Most importantly, Illinois kept schools closed long after prevailing opinion and the CDC advised otherwise, among the greatest policy errors in healthcare history.
Still more
“After years of Republican failure, Pritzker says, Illinois Democrats have turned the state around.” In truth, Democrats have held the majorities in both houses of the Illinois General Assembly for 21 years and super majorities in both houses for 11 years. A Democrat has been governor for 17 of the last 21 years. Chicago has not had a Republican mayor for 93 years.
A catalog of deceitful or dishonest claims by Pritzker and the state is here.
For voting, Illinois maintains aggressive mail-in voting rules, no requirement for picture IDs and the probably the most gerrymandered maps in the nation.
Antisemitism has been the predictable result of DEI preached by JB Pritzker and his sister, Penny Pritzker. Like Penny Pritzker at Harvard, JB Pritzker’s tenure on Northwestern University’s board of trustees contributed to the current wave of antisemitism at the school.
Illinois is in fact a moderate state not properly represented by its progressive political establishment. On virtually every major issue, Illinoisans are centrists.
Mayor Johnson and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle are among the nation’s strongest supporters of Universal Basic Income. Cook County claims its UBI program is the biggest in the nation. But neither Chicago nor the county have any way to pay for continuation of the programs, most of which have been paid for with temporary covid relief money.
The commercial property “Doom Loop” is a growing concern. Chicago, like many cities, faces a frightening, downward spiral from declining office building valuations. Though the problem may derive primarily from the work-from-home trend, it’s worsened by Chicago crime. Actual, daily occupancy of downtown offices hovers around 55% of pre-pandemic levels. Lower valuations will force massive residential property tax increases or severe budget cutbacks.
Johnson was elected mayor of Chicago despite his calls for defunding the police and justifying violent protests.
Mayor Johnson routinely places blame for Chicago’s problems on racism, disinvestment and even Richard Nixon.
Illinois progressives celebrate December 4 as Fred Hampton Day. Hampton was a member of the Black Panthers and advocated for violent, Marxist revolution.
Pritzker’s approval rating is 41% according to the most recent poll by a major pollster. Mayor Johnson’s is 28%.
“Social justice” principles guide investment of state cash. Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs remains an unapologetic champion of ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing. He manages an average balance of well over $100 billion of state money which he subjects to his social justice goals.
A 2018 Cook County inspector general’s report concluded that more than $330,000 in property tax breaks and refunds that Pritzker received on a property he owned — in part by removing toilets to render the property uninhabitable — constituted a “scheme to defraud.” Pritzker repaid the county treasurer’s office, and said the repayment was not an acknowledgment of anything improper. A federal criminal investigation of Pritzker, his wife and brother-in-law was reported to have begun on the matter in October 2018, though nothing further has been reported on that.
