Vallas on the "Great Displacement"

We were told that this was all our imagination:

• Whether by accident or by design, the “Great Displacement” is already underway. Illinois is experiencing a colossal demographic upheaval — losing affluent residents through outmigration while gaining relatively poorer ones through both interstate and international migration. This shift is largely the product of the state’s so‑called progressive policies. High taxes and fees remain the primary reason Illinoisans cite for leaving, followed closely by hopelessly failing schools, rising crime, limited economic opportunity, and expansive sanctuary measures that encourage low‑income in‑migration.  

  According to Wirepoints, Illinois continues to hemorrhage wealthy residents. Since 2000, the state has lost roughly 1.6 million people — third most in the nation, behind only California and New York. Chicago’s population, even with the recent influx of migrants, is now at its lowest level in nearly a century. Almost every county in Illinois has experienced a decline in population.  Even more troubling, Illinois isn’t merely losing residents — it’s losing income.

  The IRS reports that in 2022 alone, 87,311 residents left Illinois, taking with them $9.9 billion in adjusted gross income. The real damage runs deeper: The outflow disproportionately includes residents in their prime earning and spending years. This brain and income drain erodes the tax base, shrinking critical property, sales, and consumption tax revenues that support state and local budgets.  

People far smarter than us were warning of this ten and twenty years ago. We were new to the scene back then and Vallas is a mere toddler where this is concerned.

Now, with multi-billion dollar businesses and their associated tax generating capacities fleeing for friendlier jurisdictions, the panic has become real, even among the leftists who are going to end up having to make difficult choices between their pet programs and their legal obligations.