Illinois is losing more and more taxpaying citizens as the Democrat-controlled Illinois General Assembly and the cooperating Democrat Governor JB Pritzker rack up higher and higher taxes, along with more and more restraints on personal freedoms. This faithful Illinois Review reader is the latest to bid Illinois farewell.
From the piece: "Staying in Illinois would mean paying more, receiving less, while giving up our liberty, constitutional rights, and quality of life. It would mean continued, unabated confiscation of what we have worked so hard to achieve…"
By Jeffrey Crane -
Emancipated, at last!
As we leave Illinois for good, I wanted to say goodbye to my friends and colleagues and wish all of you well. We will miss you all!
I am a lifelong son of the heartland and proud of it. After 60 years, I leave Illinois with a heavy heart. BUT enough is enough! 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 since the ballot box encourages more of the same. We, hence, will no longer participate.
Illinois loses another family that chooses to preserve their wealth and not have it constantly confiscated by government entities, self-enriching, power-hungry, controlling bureaucrats.
We live in the most corrupt big city, and in the most corrupt state in America. I am sick and tired of subsidizing these crooks and voters who cannot see the forest through the trees. A day rarely passes without an article about immense Illinois' corruption and incompetence. Our Cook County CORPORATE property tax system is intentionally corrupt. The Democrat State Party Chairman who is also the Speaker of the Illinois House 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 while the rest of the property owners are left holding the bag.
“From democracy tyrants have borrowed the art of making war upon the notables and destroying them secretly or openly, or of exiling them because they are rivals and stand in the way of their power; and also because plots against them are contrived by men of this class, who either want to rule or to escape subjection.” – Aristotle
We seek to escape the subjection of Illinois' ruling class made up of Republican and Democrat operatives that have but one cause, and that is political preservation to which they benefit at the expense of those that they are elected to represent.
Staying in Illinois would mean paying more, receiving less, while giving up our liberty, constitutional rights, and quality of life. It would mean continued, unabated confiscation of what we have worked so hard to achieve.
The "Land of Lincoln" would be wise to pay tribute to the man who once said, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Yet, here we are. Illinois becomes the most controlled, corrupt, dictatorial state in the union. On every metric, it fails its citizens.
Finally, we will miss our hometown, Downers Grove, a place where we spent 24 years and raised our daughter. What was once a sleepy town upon our arrival is now a vibrant community that should be the envy of the state. Downers Grove governance has always been top drawer and could be emulated at the state level if Illinois’ leadership were ever to seriously address the states imposing fiscal and political issues. Unfortunately, history dictates there’s little hope in that occurrence!
And so, we bid you adieu, Illinois.
Jeffrey Crane and his family are moving to North Carolina from Downers Grove, Illinois – located in DuPage County. He posted the above on his Facebook page Monday, and granted Illinois Review permission to reprint and share with our readers.
