How Illinois has changed under Pritzker
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is acting like the 2028 Democratic candidate for president. But what does Pritzker’s Illinois resume say about his leadership?
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker keeps acting like he has aspirations beyond Illinois, but what does his time as governor say about his abilities to lead on a bigger stage?
Is Illinois better or worse since he took office? Here’s a Pritzker report card.
Taxes per person
Illinois is taking $1,434 more in taxes from each resident than before Gov. J.B. Pritzker took office, yet the tax hikes keep coming.
The fiscal year 2025 budget took $717 million more than originally planned, that’s more than an extra $55 for every resident.
Budget growth
Compared to Pritzker’s first year in 2019, the state is taking $18 billion more from taxpayers, or 51% – nearly double inflation.
Property taxes
Illinois for years was No. 2, but just passed New Jersey for the highest property taxes in the nation. While property taxes are paid to local governments, cities and towns are handcuffed to the state’s pension rules, less state revenue and more state mandates.
Between state and local pension plans, Illinois has about $218 billion in pension debt. If the state found an extra $1 million every day, it would take nearly 600 years to pay off the entire debt.
The state’s pension crisis didn’t start with Pritzker: it predates him by decades. But the governor has shown no interest in addressing it other than to ask taxpayers to pay more.
Business starts
The Illinois exodus isn’t limited to people: businesses are moving out of the state, and the rate is accelerating dramatically.
Illinois lost 2,616 businesses to other states from 1994-2023, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. For most of that time, the average loss was 64 businesses per year. The rate started accelerating significantly in about 2017 and has tripled since the pandemic.
Credit upgrades
While Illinois has had a stretch of credit upgrades, it’s still tied for the worst credit rating in the nation. The federal government also played a role in the state’s credit upgrades because Illinois was getting billions in COVID relief that helped the state pay its bills on time. Credit agencies have warned Illinois that pension debt puts immense pressure on the state’s finances.
For the last credit upgrade before COVID, you’d have to go back to 2010.
Any progress is good, but lawmakers still have a long way to go before the state’s finances are in good shape. A better credit rating means the state qualifies for a better interest rate when it borrows money, saving taxpayers in the long run.
Rainy-day fund
Every state has a fund for dire emergencies called a “rainy-day fund.” One measure of the fund’s health is the number of days it could keep things running.
Illinois only has enough money for about 16 days. Typically, a state has enough to last 47 days. New York has enough for 30 days, and California 43 days, so Illinois’ population is no excuse for having a lack of cash on hand.
The situation was worse not that long ago: the rainy-day fund was at nearly zero days of spending from 2017 to 2021 and didn’t even have a penny from 2010 to 2013.
Gambling revenue growth
One of the biggest changes under Pritzker is legal sports betting. The state legalized sports betting and expanded video gaming shortly after Pritzker took office.
Those two policy decisions have brought in hundreds of millions for the state. Even though the state gets billions from new gaming, the state can now count on gaming as a $2 billion revenue generator.
But the new money hasn’t put a dent in what Illinois owes because of how much it spends.
There’s also a social cost. Roughly 10% of adult Illinoisans have a gambling problem or are at-risk according to a 2021 study from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Gasoline taxes
Pritzker doubled the state’s gasoline excise tax from 19 cents to 38 in 2019 but also built in an annual inflation adjustment. That mechanism drove the rate to 48.3 cents per gallon this year, which has resulted in a $3.3 billion surplus in the state’s road fund and let state lawmakers this fall raid it to bail out Chicago-area mass transit.
Automatic hikes allow state lawmakers to duck responsibility for voting in favor of gas tax increases. Each year, Pritzker’s gas tax hike costs drivers $143 more than they paid before he imposed it and is responsible for driving Illinois gas taxes to No. 2 in the nation.
Pritzker certainly has accumulated some baggage during his time leading Illinois. The question is, will it thwart his efforts to get to his next destination?