High taxes and low confidence in government are driving people out of Cook County in record numbers, an analyst from a Chicago-based think tank told the Chicago City Wire.
Cook's population shrank by 21,000 people in 2016, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, and the number of people leaving appears to be increasing. The 2016 figure was more than 50 percent higher than in 2015.
The county is part of a statewide trend that saw 37,508 residents leave in 2016 -- more than any other state.
Michael Lucci, vice president of policy at the Illinois Policy Institute, said that while he was disappointed in the figures, he wasn't surprised.
“There’s a large combination of things going bad in the state right now,” he said. “Besides citizens in the state having the lowest level of confidence in their politicians, the number one reason is rising taxes. Property taxes are high and still rising; it’s becoming dangerous for many people to continue to try to stay in their homes because the taxes are on the verge of becoming too high for them to keep the property.”
A Chicago Tribune survey supports this conclusion: Departing residents cited high taxes, rising crime and the state's ongoing budget impasse as factors motivating their departure.
According to Lucci, most of those who left the state are taxpayers who earn much more on average than those who have arrived in Illinois over the same period.
"When it comes to the workers, they average earning of at least $20,000 more a year than the new people that are coming in" he said. “The fastest group leaving the city are millennial workers, then students moving out of town to attend other universities and colleges."
As Cook County falls, Southwestern areas rise.
Maricopa County, Arizona, and Harris County, Texas, boasted the nation’s highest annual population growths, with Maricopa gaining 81,360 residents over a one-year period beginning July 1, 2015, and Harris County gaining an average of 155 residents a day in the same period.
In Maricopa, more than half of the new residents were from net domestic migration -- a measure of how many people move to an area from other parts of the country. Three areas in Utah also landed on the list of fastest-growing metro areas, with much of St. George County's growth fueled by net domestic migration.
“Illinois is approaching what you would call a death spiral, where the debt soon will simply become too much to manage,” Lucci said. “Raising taxes even more won’t fix the problem. We keep having people leave because of all the high taxes; raising them on those who stay just will not work.”
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