Will County Gazette

Republican House Floor Leader Mark Batinick fears the exodus out of Illinois may even be worse than what’s documented.

“None of it surprising, but I think the net outmigration where we’re actually losing taxpayers is even greater,” Batinick told the Will County Gazette. “We absolutely need to change the way we do business here in Illinois. Right now, it’s all for the privilege and not the many.”

Batinick argues the flawed approach is coming at a heavy price, pointing to new U.S. Census Bureau data that finds over the last decade the state has lost nearly 170,000 residents to outmigration. In standing as just one of four states to have lost population over that time, researchers found 93 of the state’s 102 counties have suffered loss, topped by the Cook County area at almost 49,000 individuals. Finally, at least 10 different counties have lost at least 5,000 residents each over that time, with Batinick warning nothing is being done to stem the tide.

“We’re a year into a corruption scandal where we’ve done nothing to change the culture and we’re years into a property tax crisis where we’ve also just sat around and did nothing to make things better for people.”

Deeper analysis shows that downstate counties have particularly been hard hit, with the region losing 144,000 residents or 3.2% of its 2010 population over the same time period. In addition, data shows the losses in Cook County represent the second-worst losses of residents in any country across the country, with only Wayne County in Michigan losing more people.

Batinick fears the worse may still be yet to come.

“If we don’t change course soon, we’ll continue to see lose people and that will only make it harder on the people still here,” he said. “It’s going to be fewer people being left to pay an even bigger bill."