Can Illinois Survive?

[StrangeSox]

Why not Colorado and Washington? Too expensive still?

 

Utah, the religious element turns off quite a few....although it's a beautiful state in terms of nature.

Denver and anywhere near Puget sound are getting really expensive. Lots of Cali tech money looking at these places as cheap compared to the Bay area is driving up costs.

[RockRaines]

The biggest thing killing education in Chicago is all of the people leaving.

Not really. Public education is being killed by lack of funds, but thats not due to less people. There are more than enough students to attend, just not enough money being funneled in. Thats due to a ton of factors. This is a big reason why families leave the city to the immediate suburbs.

 

Private schools in chicago are populated with both city and suburban kids. There are wait lists for those.

[RockRaines]

Chicago the city lost less than 9k people last year. Its been on a downward trend for a bit. Its not the "loss" its the fact that its not increasing as rapidly as other areas. It will be interesting to see what happens because while Chicago is losing people on the lower end of the income spectrum, it is gaining people on the higher end. https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20170525/so...pulation-census

 

Office rents in Chicago rose almost 20% last year, 2nd highest in the world. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/col...317-column.html

 

Residential is up 2.5% http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/03/01/...ge-satisfaction

 

 

The thing killing Chicago education is that its such a large area and its hard for the wealthier areas to subsidize the poorer. Not to mention its hard to compare River North to the South Side etc.

Spot on. But also the total mismanagement of budget, the teachers union and years and years of robbing peter to pay paul.

[southsider2k5]

Not really. Public education is being killed by lack of funds, but thats not due to less people. There are more than enough students to attend, just not enough money being funneled in. Thats due to a ton of factors. This is a big reason why families leave the city to the immediate suburbs.

 

Private schools in chicago are populated with both city and suburban kids. There are wait lists for those.

 

One of the biggest problems in the CPS right now is schools which are filled to a fraction of capacity, and that is directly because of people leaving the CPS.

[maggsmaggs]

Good info, thanks. I know that, in general, taxes at the state level are regressive across the country.

 

Is Illinois pension model really that much more generous than other deep blue states like Cali or Mass?

As an Illinois state employee, specifically under the umbrella of the Illinois Supreme Court, I can only attest that in 2011, Illinois created a "Tier II" pension system that is much less generous than the prior "Tier I" system. The latter system is the biggest issue facing Illinois. It was way too generous, never properly funded and today is completely underfunded.

 

In general, even as a state employee, I do not believe we should have pensions. I love my job and would do it regardless of having a pension (and I save my money as if I will never see that pension).

 

I hate seeing our state in this shape. It really is a crisis of leadership. No one ever stood up to Madigan in the Democratic Party to tell him what he was doing was hurting the state. Rauner has now come in with some legitimately necessary ideas for this state, such as property tax relief, pension reform, procurement reform, less generous benefits to public employees, but he botched it all by asking for literally everything in year 1 and immediately calling everyone he was about to negotiate with on a budget/reform as "crook" and "crony." Even if that was true, that is not how you lead nor what will enable you to work with people with opposing ideas.

 

Now I am just ranting because the whole system pisses me off. I am legitimately worried what will happen to Illinois down the road as the pension obligations grow and the population shrinks. If only a state could file for bankruptcy because that is really the only logical solution.

Edited June 30, 2017 by maggsmaggs

[RockRaines]

One of the biggest problems in the CPS right now is schools which are filled to a fraction of capacity, and that is directly because of people leaving the CPS.

Yet some are completely overcrowded with some class sizes approaching 50 kids....

[illinilaw08]

Denver and anywhere near Puget sound are getting really expensive. Lots of Cali tech money looking at these places as cheap compared to the Bay area is driving up costs.

 

Re: Denver, I can attest to this. Fortunately, we bought before things got really crazy out here. The Denver market is interesting though - it's Chicago real estate prices, but without the Chicago salaries.

[maggsmaggs]

Re: Denver, I can attest to this. Fortunately, we bought before things got really crazy out here. The Denver market is interesting though - it's Chicago real estate prices, but without the Chicago salaries.

How are the property taxes? My wife and I are looking to move to the Glen Ellyn/Wheaton area, and the property taxes for even moderately priced homes are $8,000 per year.

[RockRaines]

Re: Denver, I can attest to this. Fortunately, we bought before things got really crazy out here. The Denver market is interesting though - it's Chicago real estate prices, but without the Chicago salaries.

The burbs are quite nice there. Downtown has exploded. I go there almost every month and there is always someting new

[StrangeSox]

Denver is great and I wish we had moved back in 2012 when we briefly considered it.

[BigSqwert]

Denver and anywhere near Puget sound are getting really expensive. Lots of Cali tech money looking at these places as cheap compared to the Bay area is driving up costs.

 

Yup. Seattle housing market is insane. Median home price is well over $700K now.

[Chicago White Sox]

Chicago is the greatest city in the world and anyone that would consider leaving is a dirty rotten traitor.

[bmags]

Yeah one thing is west of chicago there are no real cities west of chicago. Just model play sets where people go and work and a smidge of nice restaurants.

[StrangeSox]

I travel a lot for work, and I've always thought how "quaint" these cities of say 1m or so are compared to Chicago and it's skyline.

 

Then I flew to NYC.

[Jake]

Illinois will never fix its budget issues without a progressive income tax.

[greg775]

Not really. Public education is being killed by lack of funds, but thats not due to less people. There are more than enough students to attend, just not enough money being funneled in. Thats due to a ton of factors. This is a big reason why families leave the city to the immediate suburbs.

 

Private schools in chicago are populated with both city and suburban kids. There are wait lists for those.

I thought Brother Rice was hurting for students and well short of capacity.

 

Chicago is the greatest city in the world and anyone that would consider leaving is a dirty rotten traitor.

I love your pride. Chicago pride used to be really strong. Just like yours is.

My cousin is thinking of moving to Nashville. He said he's heard it is incredible place to live. I've only been there once, a while ago. Any opinion of Nashville?

[caulfield12]

Yet some are completely overcrowded with some class sizes approaching 50 kids....

 

33 was the max (officially) for KC Public Schools.

 

Although I recall having 37-38 once for Econ.

[RockRaines]

33 was the max (officially) for KC Public Schools.

 

Although I recall having 37-38 once for Econ.

Some K and Pre-K classes have over 50 kids. The CPS system is a mess

[RockRaines]

I thought Brother Rice was hurting for students and well short of capacity.

All girls suburban Catholic schools have been hurting and closing, but usually if a boys school is they go co-ed. I havent heard that about Rice.

[lord chas]

Mike Madigan face of faliure

Exhibit A of why there should be term limits

[pettie4sox]

Exhibit A of why there should be term limits

 

+1

[greg775]

All girls suburban Catholic schools have been hurting and closing, but usually if a boys school is they go co-ed. I havent heard that about Rice.

Thanks for the information.

[caulfield12]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Suggests Chicago Has Crime Problems Because Of ‘Morality'

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sarah-huckabee-s...-202855606.html

 

[Harry Chappas]

All girls suburban Catholic schools have been hurting and closing, but usually if a boys school is they go co-ed. I havent heard that about Rice.

The suburban privates like Benet, fenwick and Loyola are doing well as are the affluent city schools like British, Latin lab. It's the south side schools that are treading water as the neighborhoods are changing drying up.

 

Saw this with Queen of Peace and Mt Assisi. Rice Rita Carmel and Marist are doing fine as they sell sports well but the price just keeps going up at unrealistic rates.

 

 

[greg775]

The suburban privates like Benet, fenwick and Loyola are doing well as are the affluent city schools like British, Latin lab. It's the south side schools that are treading water as the neighborhoods are changing drying up.

 

Saw this with Queen of Peace and Mt Assisi. Rice Rita Carmel and Marist are doing fine as they sell sports well but the price just keeps going up at unrealistic rates.

I was checking Websites. Bro Rice is 11,500 a year. Benet is 11,800. Obviously these schools try to stay in similar price ranges. I loved reading some of the material on costs. You get 300 bucks off any additional kids in the family. Whoopie. 300 bucks cheaper for a second kid and third kid. The one that really got me is if you score in the 98 to 100 percentile of Rice's entrance exam you get something like 3000 bucks off. However you have to maintain a 3.9 GPA or better to keep the discount. First of all 3000 isn't even that much when u are paying 11,500. Second of all, that's pretty wild making sure the kid gets a 3.9.

So if a parent on the south side has 3 kids and 2 are in the high school at the same time and the other is a few years behind, you are talking about 90,000 dollars before the 2 get out of school. Then another 44,000 for the third child when it's time to go to Rice or McAuley. Then you gotta pay for college. I assume U of I is at least 10,000 a year in state. So if you have 3 kids in life you are looking at least 300,000 total to get all three through private h.s. and U of I. That's a bit of cash.