Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar


Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives


Previous Post: Undercover justice
Next Post: Gov. Rauner signs more criminal justice reform bills

Illinois improves economic ranking, but we’re still mired down

Posted in:

* Governing Magazine

For the first time since 2013, we’ve ranked the overall economic performance of the 50 states. The results show a connection between a state’s economic performance and its governor’s approval ratings.

To determine which states are doing well and which aren’t, we looked at six variables from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Economic Analysis: the current state unemployment rate; the improvement in the state unemployment rate over the past year; the per capita state GDP in 2015; the percent change in real state GDP between 2014 and 2015; the percent change in state personal income per capita, from the third quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016; and the percentage growth in year-to-date increases in jobs for 2016.

These variables were chosen to offer a mix of static and dynamic measures of the states’ overall economic performance

Illinois ranked 34th.

* The top 5

1. Massachusetts
2. Oregon
3. Delaware
4. Colorado
5. California

* Three years ago, Illinois ranked 45th, so we’re moving up, I suppose. Here were the top five back then

1. Washington
2. Iowa
3. Texas
4. Utah
5. North Dakota

North Dakota, hit hard by the oil/gas bust, is now 40th. Texas, also hit by the bust, is now in 21st place, but that’s still ahead of Illinois.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 1:19 pm

Comments

  1. I see Arizona is a lofty 41st.

    Hmmmm

    Comment by JS Mill Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 1:31 pm

  2. Illinois (Chicago primarily) has experienced notable economic growth under Rauner. The City is doing quite well other than the pesky union pensions

    Comment by Ron Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 1:33 pm

  3. Finally some good news for a change.

    Comment by Lucky Pierre Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 1:44 pm

  4. Are we moving up or are others just falling back?

    Comment by Kerfuffle Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 1:50 pm

  5. Interesting to point out that none of the top 5 are right to work states while 3 of the bottom 5 are.

    Comment by A Parent Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 1:54 pm

  6. Interesting what they said 5 years ago about Jindal as he was destroying LA from the inside in the same manner as Rauner here.

    Comment by Honeybear Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 1:54 pm

  7. What’s the tax rates for the top 5?

    Comment by Henry Francis Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 2:01 pm

  8. ===Illinois (Chicago primarily) has experienced notable economic growth under Rauner.===

    You should tell that to the Governor. I think “last we left our hero… ” Rauner was saying how bad things in Illinois continue to be. Which is it?

    ===The City is doing quite well other than the pesky union pensions===

    Comstituonally protected, don’t forget that. Your jealousy is a nice shade of green.

    To the Post,

    I dunno if the growth is all growth, or a majority of other states falling so rapidly, or both… but I do know that having a state budget passed and signed would help the “climate” and I do know continued trench fighting between Madigan and Rauner isn’t helping either side with a want to tout how great things could be, what needs to be done to make things better, and the lack of 60 and 30 with a guaranteed clean signature is quite possibly the most important fact lost to those wanting gubernatorial fiats and those ignoring a lack of 71 votes to override a passive Executive.

    Budget. Need a budget. Then build on these type of benchmarks.

    Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 2:05 pm

  9. Is the Turnaround Agenda indeed turning IL around … in an altogether unanticipated way? Deft, I’d say.

    Comment by Deft Wing Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 2:06 pm

  10. ===What’s the tax rates for the top 5? ===

    Massachusetts
    5.1% flat tax

    Oregon
    9% $8,401 and $125,000
    9.9% $125,001 and above.

    Delaware
    6.6% over $60,000.

    Colorado
    4.63% flat tax

    California
    9.3% $51,531 and $263,222
    10.3% $263,223 and 315,866
    11.3% $315,867 and $526,443
    12.3% 526,444 and above

    For local flavor
    Iowa
    8.98% $69,256 and above

    All data from bankrate dot com

    Comment by Matt Belcher Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 2:21 pm

  11. Looks like taxes are going up …!

    Comment by JDuc Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 2:31 pm

  12. Illinois has the 5th highest state and local tax burden in the nation. MA is 12th. CO is 35th. DE is 16th. OR is 10th. IA is 31th. CA is tied with IL.

    Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 2:34 pm

  13. ==Illinois has the 5th highest state and local tax burden in the nation.==

    Can you point me to this? I’m finding a lot of different numbers, but not these. Thanks!

    Comment by HangingOn Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 3:05 pm

  14. = CA is tied with IL. =

    By all estimates, California is a high tax state and yet their economy continues to grow. It also happens to dwarf the size of the economies of most nations in the world.

    Comment by JS Mill Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 3:06 pm

  15. Illinois is generally not a nice place. High taxes make it even less so. CA is very different.

    Comment by Ron Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 3:15 pm

  16. My overall tax burden may be higher here in IL than it was in MA, but my cost of living is much lower. Go look at rents in MA, even way outside Boston. And housing prices. Many factors go into one’s standard of living. Tax burden is just one.

    Comment by MSIX Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 3:34 pm

  17. ==What’s the tax rates for the top 5?==

    If you’re talking property tax, here’s those top 5 rankings (and IL) according to Wallethub:

    31. Massachusetts
    27. Oregon
    4. Delaware
    8. Colorado
    17. California
    49. Illinois

    ==By all estimates, California is a high tax state and yet their economy continues to grow. It also happens to dwarf the size of the economies of most nations in the world.==

    Probably doesn’t hurt that it’s an aspirational state. And considering all that extra tax money, CA actually spends less money per pupil than IL.

    Comment by City Zen Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 3:49 pm

  18. See what weed does for your state’s economy?

    Comment by Lefty Lefty Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 4:06 pm

  19. Comparative economic studies end up being news for the day. Tomorrow will be another study with different results, and so on.

    Side note: The last thing IL would ever want to do is become more like CA. This study seemed to skip over the ridiculous inequality in CA. Not to mention the fact that people are paying $500k for a modest house with a two-hour (each way) drive on a freeway to work every day.

    Comment by BK Bro Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 4:11 pm

  20. City Zen, you are off on property tax. Illinois has the second highest property tax in the nation. Check out this sitesite.https://www.thebalance.com/best-and-worst-states-for-property-taxes-3193328

    Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 4:25 pm

  21. ==Illinois is generally not a nice place.==

    Do you live in Illinois? If you do then leave if that’s what you think. Why would you want to stay someplace you clearly have such disdain for?

    Comment by Demoralized Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 4:55 pm

  22. I love the city of Chicago. That’s why I stay.

    Comment by Ron Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 7:41 pm

  23. So do Governor’s own the improvement?

    Comment by Shemp Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 8:34 pm

  24. ===So do Governor’s own the improvement?===

    If they, and their Crew, are smart, absolutely, yes, 100%.

    Talking the state down all the time makes it hard to do the obvious pivot.

    Governors own can be good too. Rauner just refuses to see that.

    Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 9:03 pm

  25. CA has the highest paid govt employees in the country….. and huge workers comp benefits

    Comment by Ghost Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 9:39 pm

Add a comment

Sorry, comments are closed at this time.

Previous Post: Undercover justice
Next Post: Gov. Rauner signs more criminal justice reform bills


Last 10 posts:

more Posts (Archives)

WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.

powered by WordPress.