Will County Gazette

Veteran state Rep. Margo McDermed (R-Mokena) argues all of Illinois’ growing population issues lead back to the same starting place.

“The way to change the trend is to have jobs that make people want to be here,” McDermed told the Will County Gazette. “A big part of the reason why so many people are leaving this state is because younger workers are finding they can’t get the kind of job they want to start a career here.”

With that, the state has suffered in more ways than one, with the latest U.S. Census Bureau data finding that over the last decade nearly 170,000 residents have fled Illinois, including 49,000 Cook County residents alone. Overall, researchers found that 93 of the state’s 102 counties have also suffered population decline over that time, with at least 10 counties losing upwards of at least 5,000 people.

McDermed sighs things may get worse before they get better.

“We’re losing people and losing jobs people can actually make a living on for their family,” she said. “We need to make sure more jobs of young people are being created. The problem is there’s little acknowledgement of that in Springfield and democrats argue it’s really not an issue. Until they change their tune, it’s going to be really hard to address the issue the way we truly need to.”

As it is, downstate counties have been among the hardest hit regions, losing in the neighborhood of 144,000 residents since 2010 or 3.2% of its population from that time.

Meanwhile, McDermed rages every indication is that Democrats still haven’t learned their lesson.

“Right now, the governor is angry because his latest tax increase idea was rejected,” she said. “You can’t tax your way into a booming economy. The way to get out of the slump is to grow the number of jobs.”