Chicago City Wire

Republican political strategist Chris Robling is not surprised to see so many people now fleeing Illinois for what they perceive to be greener pastures.

“People are voting with their feet because the state is picking their pocket,” Robling told Chicago City Wire. “The state of Illinois and its constituent municipalities have untold scores of billions in unfunded liabilities since no Illinois politicians have the courage to negotiate with unions. People rightly see the state coming to them to pick up the tab for their overspending.”

The end result is 93 of Illinois' 102 counties have lost population over the last decade, with the latest U.S. Census Bureau data pegging the total loss at nearly 170,000 people, including almost 49,000 from the Cook County area alone.

Cook County has the second largest population decline in the country | Pixabay

In all, at least 10 different counties lost at least 5,000 residents, and Robling fears the trend may not be changing anytime soon.

“We’re in a decline just like California, New York, New Jersey and many of the other blue state dominated regions,” Robling said. “The tragedy is nothing is being done about it. Gov. Pritzker’s (D) so-called budgets cuts are really a pathetic denial of the gravity of the challenges we face. It’s reminiscent of how it was during (former Governor) Rauner’s entire four years in office.”

With Illinois being only one of four states to show losses over the last decade, downstate counties have particularly suffered, with the region losing 144,000 residents or 3.2% of its 2010 population over that time.

Meanwhile, data shows the losses in Cook County represent the second worst losses of residents in any county across the country, with only Wayne County in Michigan losing more people.