Will County Gazette

State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) desperately wants to see the middle class return to Illinois.

“So much of the policy that’s being enacted has served to carve out the middle class,” Batinick told the Will County Gazette. “Property taxes are too high, all the overregulation has led to all the manufacturing jobs leaving. And when the jobs go, the people go.”

Given that formula, Batinick isn’t surprised by the latest U.S. Census Bureau data that finds that Chicago decreased in population for the third straight year, with 3,825 residents fleeing the city in 2017.

With outmigration still on the rise and showing no signs of slowing, some are deducing that’s it’s just a matter of time before the city will lose its distinction as the country’s third largest city over Houston, which grew by 8,235 residents over the same period.

Chicago is the only one of the country’s five largest cities that lost population in 2017.

“That’s all at least partly due to the direction the state has taken over the last few years,” said Batinick, who is running for re-election in the 97th District in November’s general election. “Pension reform, workmen’s compensation and tort reform all need to be addressed for any of this to change.”

Batinick said the same holds true for property taxes, adding that the idea of a 1 percent statewide tax that is now being pushed by some lawmakers will only make a bad situation worse.

“This plan would cause a second major real estate crash and would likely cause a significant recession here in Illinois,” he recently argued on the House floor in Springfield. “I’ve heard some bad economic ideas over the past three years, but this would top them all."