FormerState Senator and Republican Cook County Board President candidate Roger Keats and his wife Tina are leaving Illinois to live in Texas . They bid farewell to their Illinois friends with the following letter.
Dear friends,
As we leave Illinois for good, I wanted to say goodbye and wish all of you well. I am a lifelong son of the heartland and proud of "The Land of Lincoln" state.
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 most of us love the 4 beautiful seasons of Illinois .
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)
Five 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 1,000 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 policemen and firemen!
Our Crook County corporate tax system is intentionally corrupt. The Democrat State Chairman, who is also the Speaker of the Illinois House (Speaker 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.
Cook County 's property tax system is a disaster: The assessed value of our Chicago home was 50% higher than the sale price. 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 more than 20% next year.
The Illinois system is unfair and incompetent. In the Hill Country of Texas (near Austin and San Antonio ) we bought a gracious 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 a third of what they are here.
We are moving to Texas where there is no income tax, while Illinois just went up 67%. Texas sales tax is half of ours, which is the highest in the nation. Southern states are supportive of job producers, taxpayers and folks who offer opportunities to their residents. Illinois shakes them down for every penny that can be extorted from them.
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.
How can one destroy what has already been destroyed thanks to the RepubliCon policies implemented going back to their patron Saint Ronnie Of Reagan's Regime and culminating in the disastrous 8 years of The Dumbya Bush Regime??? RepubliCons held the presidency for 20 of the last 31 years and controlled most of Congress for like amount of time.
@ boobya Shouldn't you be out on the street defecating on our flag or group-masturbating with the rest of your democrat buddies? Yes boobya, we all know Reagan and Bush destroyed Chicago and Illinois and democrats had nothing to do with it and the Republicans are now spending us into bankruptcy. Thanks for the update! Run along now and get some more "facts" from the loony leftwing lib hate sites.
Hey boobya, I think you may be right about what party's best for the nation. Detroit has had democrat mayors since 1961. I hear it's a regular paradise since they instituted their policies. Better make your travel plans and book your hotel now before they fill up for summer vacation season!
Excellent post Ridge. I thought that R.I. was the most corrupt and find it very sad to see that another state is worse than we are. and... yes this is a democrat-centric state (which is why I do not speak politics with the neighbors), so there is NO wonder why the state is going belly up. Many expect the dems to spend us (RI) into bankruptcy within 4 years - never considered moving to Texas though...
Without federal assistance many of these liberal majority populated states would go belly up. Most of them are running state deficits now. Probably why they need a liberal majority in DC.
@Rick Show me a Republican-run city as corrupt as that stinking cesspool you live in or as desolate a hell-hole as Detroit and I'll agree that corruption knows no party. There have been and are corrupt Republicans but democrats have taken corruption to an art form. Democrats are the jackals and hyenas tearing at the soft underbelly of The American Dream. You CANNOT compare the depth of depravity between the two parties. Democrats lust after the blood of aborted babies. They fight for the right to slaughter them. Evil finds comfort with democrats. Corruption indeed knows which party is which. It's tentacles may extend to the Republican party but it's safely at home and comfortable with the democrats.
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RepubliCons held the presidency for 20 of the last 31 years and controlled most of Congress for like amount of time.
Shouldn't you be out on the street defecating on our flag or group-masturbating with the rest of your democrat buddies?
Yes boobya, we all know Reagan and Bush destroyed Chicago and Illinois and democrats had nothing to do with it and the Republicans are now spending us into bankruptcy.
Thanks for the update!
Run along now and get some more "facts" from the loony leftwing lib hate sites.
Say bye-bye to bam-bam in November!
I think you may be right about what party's best for the nation.
Detroit has had democrat mayors since 1961.
I hear it's a regular paradise since they instituted their policies.
Better make your travel plans and book your hotel now before they fill up for summer vacation season!
Probably why they need a liberal majority in DC.
Show me a Republican-run city as corrupt as that stinking cesspool you live in or as desolate a hell-hole as Detroit and I'll agree that corruption knows no party.
There have been and are corrupt Republicans but democrats have taken corruption to an art form.
Democrats are the jackals and hyenas tearing at the soft underbelly of The American Dream.
You CANNOT compare the depth of depravity between the two parties.
Democrats lust after the blood of aborted babies. They fight for the right to slaughter them.
Evil finds comfort with democrats. Corruption indeed knows which party is which.
It's tentacles may extend to the Republican party but it's safely at home and comfortable with the democrats.
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