Way to go, Chicago!! (and Illinois) the numbers don't lie

It's sad but true that what happens in Chicago, tears down the entire state of Illinois as well.  

Chicago is the tail that wags the dog in this state, so what happens in Chicago, bleeds all over Illinois. 

REPORT FROM BLUE AMERICA: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel should be crying about what Democrats have done to his city and Illinois. 

A recent study named Chicago the most corrupt city in the United States, and 340 city officials and 31 aldermen have been convicted of corruption since 1970.

* Despite raising the individual income tax 66% and the corporate tax 46% in 2011, the state is projected to end the current fiscal year with an accumulated deficit of $5.2 billion. Illinois has just stopped paying its bills. Some vendors have gone unpaid for nine months or even longer. 

* Unsurprisingly, Illinois has the worst credit rating of any state. It is in de facto bankrupt.

* New York City has over 8 million people and had 414 homicides this year. Chicago has less than 3 million people and had 500 homicides. 

* Of the 15 largest cities in the United States in 2010, Chicago was the only one that lost population. Its population has dropped to a level not seen since 1910. 

* Chicago has a terrible business climate and it has the nation's highest sales tax. The city's vaunted Loop is the second-largest central business district in the nation, and in the past decade it has lost 18.6% of its private-sector jobs. The entire Chicago region lost 7.1% of its jobs—the worst performance of any of the country's ten largest metro areas.

* City Journal asks "What accounts for Chicago's miserable performance in the 2000s? It is the result of poor leadership and powerful interest groups that benefit from the status quo. Public-union clout is literally written into the state constitution."

The ramifications of this type of political culture results in people taking the only steps that they can take --  they vote with their wallets and their feet and they increasingly walk away.

According to Migration Data from the Tax Foundation http://interactive.taxfoundation.org/migration/ (net migration from 1993 - 2010):

When you compare Illinois to every other state in the union in terms of people either moving into or out of the comparative states, Illinois is losing in the transaction in virtually every example.

Only when compared against Delaware (small # of exchanges), Iowa (virtual dead heat), North Dakota (small # of exchanges) and Ohio does Illinois come out ahead. In many instances, they get absolutely swamped.

You have to wonder about Ohio, but they at least seem to be taking steps to turn things around.