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Today’s number: 660,000

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Illinois

* From Larry Joseph, director, Fiscal Policy Center at Voices for Illinois Children…

“The Census Bureau today released its American Community Survey data. As a multi-issue child policy and advocacy organization, Voices for Illinois Children is particularly concerned about the following data:

• The child poverty rate in Illinois jumped to 21.6% in 2011, up from 19.4% in 2010 and 15.4% in 2000. In 2011, nearly 660,000 Illinois children lived in poverty, up from 600,000 on 2010 and 500,000 in 2000.

• In 2011, only 3.7% of Illinois children lacked health insurance coverage, compared with 7.5% nationwide. Only four states had lower uninsured rates for children. Illinois has also substantially reduced racial-ethnic disparities in health insurance coverage.

* Tribune…

An estimated 1.9 million people in the state were living below the federal poverty rate last year, almost 150,000 more than in 2010, according to the new American Community Survey. Chicago saw another 15,000 enter poverty last year, bringing the city’s total to 261,400, the ACS survey showed.

The trend of increasing financial woes, dating back to the recession that began in late 2007, also includes a shrinking paycheck for those who are employed as people who were laid off from white-collar jobs take lower-paying work where they can get it. Last year the median household income in Chicago was $43,628 — $4,000 less than in 2009 and part of a steady decline over the past three years, the census figures show.

“The low-paying sectors are growing,” while higher-paying industries continue to shed jobs, said Sheldon Danzinger, a University of Michigan economist who has written extensively about poverty trends. “Service, retail, food. They don’t pay very high wages. That’s a reason why a lot of working people are getting food stamps.”

The numbers bear out in Chicago, the ACS survey shows. The number of workers in 2011 who earned $25,000 to $35,000 grew by nearly 9,300 compared with 2010, according to survey estimates. Meanwhile, the number of people with annual salaries of $75,000 to $100,000 dropped by almost 4,000 during the same period.

Discuss.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 11:40 am

Comments

Those are horrible numbers for the area economy. I wish we could find some common ground and pass some meaningful pension, workers comp, and medicaid reforms. Then we would stop chasing away high paying jobs and industry.

Comment by Allen Skillicorn Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 11:52 am
John Tillman, the CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute would like to see State workers below the proverty level. See below.

Comment by Tobor Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 11:55 am
Tobor,

Nice try, but based on the average state worker salaries, they are nowhere NEAR the poverty line:

http://databases.sj-r.com/salaries/state-of-il/

It’s this kind of hysteria that got us into this mess in the first place.

We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. I’m not suggesting that the public employee unions are entirely to blame–they are part of the problem, but should not be made out to be the single scapegoat.

But the bottom line is the more projects the government takes on, the more there’s a money crunch. Tax revenues are finite, particularly because people change their behaviors & MOVE away in order to avoid paying taxes. Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, we have basically been running the state the same way for several decades. The main political arguments at the top policy levels seem to be ones about competency and not about challenging underlying assumptions about what the role of government should be.

The numbers speak for themselves. Doing the same thing we’ve been doing and expecting different results is just insane.

Comment by John Galt Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 12:12 pm
Who is to blame? Bush?

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 12:18 pm
==I wish we could find some common ground and pass some meaningful pension, workers comp, and medicaid reforms==
“Reform” That’s a good idea - rip-off existing workers will solve everything. Sheesh!

Comment by Crime Fighter Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 12:31 pm
I would like to see some evidence that all of this “reform” would actually increase the number of high paying jobs and attract more industry.

Comment by G'Kar Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 12:36 pm
People will choose to have children, and they have that right, so I don’t know that we should be worried about the absolute rate of child poverty. What I am grateful for is to see the health insurance rates for poor children in this state. That is truly good news.

Comment by cermak_rd Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 12:48 pm
“I wish we could find some common ground and pass some meaningful pension, workers comp, and medicaid reforms.”

And ‘reform’ in Medicaid will help people in poverty how? How many people do you want to kick off the program to make it ‘meaningful?’

Comment by late to the party Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 12:55 pm
According to Senator Radogno, the legislature passed a bill to remove non-citizens from Medicaid. But Quinn refuses to enforce it.
Why?

Comment by Genevieve Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 1:04 pm
With all this talk about job creators, why isn’t there a discussion about what jobs they are in fact creating?

Comment by Dee Lay Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 1:28 pm
CF - …and is “ripping off” the tax payers any better? That’s not balanced either.

Comment by Allen Skillicorn Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 2:14 pm
At a time when more residents slide into poverty, due to the economy, the State slashes Medicaid and social services.

The fact is legislators would rather deprive the poor than raise taxes, even though IL remains among the lower-taxing states as a percent of income.

Comment by reformer Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 2:21 pm
This hits on the very issue with the facility closures. On one hand listen to the political hand wringing about jobs that pay below $10 with no benefits and the research showing low pay service jobs are growing. Yet that same political system wants deep cuts in DCFS, close JDC/Murray, and close prisons. Look at the rates being paid to community providers to serve people from JDC. The salaries are hitting under $10 with no insurance or retirement. The higher pay and benefits to state employees makes it too expensive to run state facilities, while that level of higher pay and benefits is the target the system is shooting for to get people off the Medicaid roles. It’s an unwinnable issue that cannot be sustained either way. What private company is going to step up and pay higher wages when the money is not there to pay higher wages?

Comment by zatoichi Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 2:33 pm
Does Medicaid get people out of poverty or new jobs and industry?

Which came 1st? Chicken or the egg?

Certainly raising taxes isn’t going to bring in new jobs. We live in a mobile economy. I hear FL is awfully nice…

Comment by Allen Skillicorn Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 3:28 pm
@Skillcorn -

Who is stopping you from moving?

Last time I checked, Illinois was leading the midwest in creating new jobs in the private sector, and had one of the best records in the nation.

Before you rush off to Florida though, Mitt Romney wants to warn you that its dominated by Moochers. Oops, I meant seniors receiving social security.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 3:48 pm
The race to the bottom . Pluotocrat plans on track. Take over compnay cut wages,fire everybody move jobs to China-stuff the profits in your pocket first even though you used state pension fund money to do this. Buy up politicians and then run for your own coronation as President or Gov.
I Hope the Romney tape finally woke some people up

Comment by western illinois Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 3:51 pm
===I hear FL is awfully nice… ===

Didn’t you just get elected a suburban trustee? I highly doubt your threat is believable.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Sep 20, 12 @ 3:55 pm