CHICAGO – Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan resists the reforms proposed by Governor Bruce Rauner because, Madigan says, he's all about the middle class and their job situation in Illinois.
If that's the case then, asks Illinois Policy Institute's Michael Lucci, how does the longtime Democrat House Speaker explain why blue collar workers in Indiana make more than than do for doing the same thing in Illinois? Why is Illinois the only Great Lakes region state that has lost manufacturing jobs since the 2008-2009 recession?
"Workers in blue-collar occupations earn an average salary of $34,935 in Illinois, compared to $35,198 in Indiana, after adjusting for the cost of living. And that’s before factoring in Illinois’ higher taxes, particularly its residential property taxes, which eat away at middle-class incomes more and more every year," Lucci says in a piece describing the dilemma. "Approximately 63 percent of Indiana’s labor force work in blue-collar jobs, compared to 57 percent in Illinois, which shows that more workers can find these jobs in Indiana."
Here's the stats:
And Illinois has lost 14,000 manufacturing jobs in 2015, compared with 11,000 gained in Indiana.
"Madigan and the other long-term, status-quo politicians in Illinois have had a heavy hand in driving the state to this point – and the numbers prove it," says Lucci.
Not only do blue-collar workers make less in Illinois than in Indiana, Illinois’ low-wage workers are the worst-paid in the Midwest, according to federal data. Madigan should have to defend this record when he claims that he is looking out for the middle class. In fact, Madigan is preventing the economic reforms Illinois’ low-wage and middle-class workers desperately need.
The rest is HERE.
