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1.5 million live in poverty here * Updated x1 *

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Illinois

I’m not sure how much conversation this will generate here, but let’s give it a go anyway.

Eighty-seven of Illinois’ 102 counties have seen an increase in poverty, according to a report released today by the Illinois Poverty Summit. Nearly 1.5 million Illinois residents live in poverty — more than the population of the entire city of Philadelphia, the fifth largest city in the nation.

The full report can be downloaded here [pdf file]. A supplemental report on the Chicago area can be downloaded here [pdf].

Poverty is not solely an urban problem. Poverty issues get very little media coverage in general, but the problems of the rural poor get practically no attention, partly because media outlets are based in cities.

Take a look at this map, created by the Illinois Poverty Summit people, of counties on their poverty warning and watch lists. [Click on the pic for a bigger image]

Here’s how the ratings were done [emphasis added]…

Four key indicators of well-being are assessed in each of Illinoisâ€™ 102
counties - high school graduation rates, unemployment rates, teen birth rates, and poverty rates. Counties in Illinois are evaluated using a point system, with the higher number of points indicating a worse score. A point is given to a county if its rate is higher than the state average and/or if they have worsened since the previous year. For each indicator a total of 2 points is possible and overall a total of 8 points is possible. Counties that score 4 or 5 points are placed on a Watch List and counties that score 6, 7, or 8 points are placed on a Warning List.

Using this methodology, over half of Illinois counties have been placed on either the Poverty Watch or Poverty Warning lists. There has been significant movement since the 2006 Report â€” 44 counties have a worse list status this year than they did last, and only a handful of counties improved their list status.

I’ve also uploaded a few tables from the report, they are all county-by-county and make for some interesting reading.

* Income & Poverty

* Housing

* Health care and education

I’ve just skimmed the data, so go take a look at the report when you get some time. There’s plenty more at this link.

The group has also come up with ways to address the situation. Here are a few:

– Expand transitional and vocational job programs to ensure that even the lowest-skilled workers and job seekers can obtain and retain employment.

– Generate new funding for affordable housing by reforming the real estate transfer tax.

– Expand the state Earned Income Tax Credit program so low-income workers can keep more of their earnings.

Discuss.

*** UPDATE *** The publishers of the report plan to have a “drop-in legislative briefing” on the findings at the Rathskellar, March 1st from 7:30 - 9:30 AM.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 9:14 am

Comments

Bravo to the Poverty Summit folks, who always put out a thoughtful assessment of these issues. And thumbs-up to the policy recommendations, particularly increasing the Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit to help the working poor hang onto more of their hard-earned cash at tax-filing time each year. Even Ronald Reagan called EITC the single best anti-poverty, pro-family tool in the policy toolbox, but it’s been neglected for too long. Time to change that.

Comment by Anani Mouse Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 9:43 am
Illinois is a one party state, and the proposals made in the report counter Democratic party myths on poverty. As a result, it will be ignored.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 10:00 am
And raising the mimimum wage will further erode rural employment. it will be interesting to watch what happens

Comment by The Horse Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 10:02 am
“And raising the mimimum wage will further erode rural employment”

Got any proof for that?

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 10:04 am
One recommendation they don’t make about how to reduce poverty: Stop having children out of wedlock, since children raised by one parent are far more likely to live in poverty than children raised by two. I suppose that idea is too un-pc.

Comment by respectful Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 10:18 am
It would be nice to see an economic assessment of job trends for each county included in the study. With traditional manufacturing and industrial jobs leaving the state and county, and agricultural jobs needing fewer workers, the state is making a shift to lower paying service oriented jobs. That is the reason for a higher minimum wage. Although, even with the increase many of the people with these types of jobs will still fall into the poverty categories.

Comment by clj Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 10:19 am
Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed have a pretty good opinion piece in today’s Trib on EITC.

The choice of metrics shows how intractable the problem for counties. Get down to it, the best way state government can help is do everything possible to promote growth and an educated labor force.

Clean government where your not obligated to kick in to everyone’s campaign war-chest no small part of that.

Comment by Bill Baar Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 10:28 am
affordable housing

I think every county on the map is chock full of affordable housing. That is just silly.

Expand transitional and vocational job programs

That is so 1975. When will they face the reality that:

1) many jobs are going overseas. Who addresses that?

2) While (1) is happening, lots of poor, uneducated people are immigrating here. If there were fewer of those, the ones here would have a better chance to improve their life.

As for the rural areas, traditionally there were lower cost areas to do things. Now that you can move the even lower cost labor close to the city, who needs rural areas anymore?

I especially like page 14 “native vs immigrant poverty rate”. By including “native born” you get the kids of immigrants into another category, so as to make it look less like immigration is importing poverty. Cute trick.

One interesting fact from the census is the out flow of people from IL. Even dosmestic hispanic movement was net out. Only foreign immigration kept it a net increase.

Comment by Pat Collins Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 10:43 am
affordable housing

I think every county on the map is chock full of affordable housing. That is just silly.

I meant to say “every county in the poverty range or watch”.

Comment by Pat Collins Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 10:44 am
The middle class has traditionally been a main source of State revenues (sales and income taxes). The report says it’s shrinking. So how will all the big problems, like education, health care and pensions, be funded? A strong economy, which generates wealth, which generates State revenues, is the foundation for addressing these big problems. What exactly is Illinois doing to build a strong economy?

Comment by Doodles Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 11:19 am
In the long run there are only to solution to poverty, better education and economic growth. We need to fix those schools systems in the state that are having problems and provide oppurnties for people that are out of work in low paying jobs to obtain training and education in order to get better jobs or be more productive, this would good
We need to adopt policies that make the state economy strong, lower business fees, improve the states capital assets and infrastucture, ect. quite frankly you can have all of the government programs you want to eliminate poverty, but if you dont have a strong economy, they wont make a damn bit of difference. If you want to eliminate poverty you need more and better jobs and a growing economy. It sounds simple but a rising tide lifts all boats. The earn income tax credit is a good way to help the poor and expanding it into a full negative income tax would be an even better way. Raising the states minimum wage more is a bad idea, if the wages for low skilled jobs are significantly higher here than in neighboring states, those jobs will go there instead. Besides any kind of increase in the minimum wage that would be enough to lift all these people out of poverty would also lead to a increase in unemployment. Any kind of protectionist push would be flat out bad for the United States and Illinois in general, the only people that would benefit would be those in the protected industry, everyone else would face higher prices, less choice and lower quality products. Along with that it would probably lead to retaliatory measures against American goods and foreign industries that outsource jobs to the United States, of which there are many in a number of higher paying industries.

Comment by RMW Stanford Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 11:52 am
If Richie Daley was Mayor in Bosnia or Albania he would be tried on ethnic cleansing. He pushed so many Black people and projects out of the city.

The UN is investigating the Burge torture and some of the German Amnesty International are oppossing the Olympics in Chicago for that reason. Police torture and poverty go hand in hand.

Comment by Slobodan Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 12:29 pm
But what jobs will those be, the ones that better education prepares the workers of tomorrow to do.
Education can overcome many obstacles, but talented kids in every generation are usually identified and helped to a good university education these days. It’s the not so talented who are the problem. And they have the least ability to migrate.

For decades, Illinoisians have perceived Chicago as a vaccum sucking up Downstate tax monies to benefit the innner city, minority poor. Those inner city poor are rapidly disappearing. I live near Chicago and spend a lot of time there. Vast swaths of previously impoversihed neighborhoods are rapidly gentrifying, or at least middle-class-ifying. Uptown. Pilsen. The near South side. Bucktown.The old Skid Row on Madison Street and the West Loop, which is spreading. The hospital corridor around Damen and Harrison. And so on. Even Englewood is perking up. And forget about buying a cheap house on the Northwest side.

Under the Dems, power and money is concentrated in Chicago. In fact most top executive staff live and work there. Under Blago, it’s a Chicago-centric state government.

How easy will it be for the Demcratic power elites, including minority elites. to send that money back out Downstate where the real poverty is now concentrated, and where the face of poverty may be white or Hispanic, not African American.

Not that easy, I bet.

Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 12:43 pm
Illinois, like other resource exporting nations, is a third world economy with growing inequity. What does Illinois have that is similar to countries plagued by instability,poverty and corruption: industrial corn soybean production, coal, and now ethanol. Not a good scenario to grow jobs or more equitable distribution of income for dwindling populations in the rural areas. But a good scenario to increase prison populations (re: meth, stealing copper wire, etc.), build casino based tax revenues, poach deer on the elites’ hunting estates, and bust some clay pigeons at the World Shooting Complex.

Comment by vole Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 12:54 pm
C’mon, Vole, a Third World economy? Have you ever been to the Third World?

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 12:57 pm
Have you ever been to the Third World?

I have. And I don’t mean urban China, either.

IL is certainly NOT a 3rd world economy, YET. But the trends are not very good. It’s now widely accepted that blue collar wages have been stagnant.

Education helps, but with H1-B visas (wonder WHY there is a “nurse shortage?” Just in some areas, like the “teacher shortage”) wages can be slowed or stagnated there, also.

Yes, marriage and legitimacy of children DOES improve chances to escape/prevent poverty.

But whom do those women marry? What jobs will their hubbies have?

Comment by Pat Collins Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 1:07 pm
I’m not sure how rural unemployment is affected by a minimum wage hike but in AZ teenage employment is taking a hit.

Because of all the variables involved in hiring and firing it is nearly impossible to get the kind of confidence levels in the empirical research to “proove” the minimum wage increases poverty. With that said the law of supply pretty much tells us that the more labor costs the less people will be willing to purchase it. So, yeah, hiking the minimum wage can increase poverty. Since the vast majority of minimum wage workers come from middle class families, it’s impact on poverty would be minimal.

I would also note that if you can cut most poverty numbers in half in the US by simply measuring it on a two year basis. That’s because of the incredible amount of income mobility we have in the US. What’s interesting is that with the increased mobility in recent years has come all that angst. Just as it is easy to move up, it’s become easier to move down.

Comment by Greg Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 1:54 pm
Vole, how is the production of corn/soybeans and ethanol not a good scenario for impoverished rural areas? There are hundreds of millions of dollars being pumped into the Illinois economy to produce more ethanol/biodiesel plants as we speak. The production of these plants creates both construction jobs in building the plants, and operational jobs in running the plants. Not to mention the increase in trucking due to the increased desire of farmers to move their product to different locations than the country elevator. Plus, farmers receive a higher price on their soy/corn which will then be reinvested into local economies. Any tractor or truck dealer can tell you they do much better business when grain prices are high.
Ethanol is the best thing rural economies have going for them right now. We have lost our competitive advantage in manufacturing and look what happened to that industry. Agribusiness is an area in which the US has a great competitive advantage, and forms the backbone of rural economies.

Comment by Gene Parmesan Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 3:04 pm
Cassandra, the “inner city poor” are not “disappearing” in Chicago, they are just moving over the city line. Take a look at the huge increase in suburban poverty rates, and you will have found your missing people.

The politicians in power keep telling us things are great, and Chicago is now a “World Class City.” This study shows me that such talk is only true for the fat cats.

Comment by Bubs Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 3:27 pm
Time for industrial hemp. Why chop down trees for paper when Illinois farmers could grow paper? Industrial hemp could have just as big of a positive impact on our economy as ethanol. The door panels on Chrysler Sebrings are made from 25% hemp fiber that is imported from Canada, for example. Some research suggests industrial hemp is a better fuel option than corn, which isn’t hard to do. Rudolph Diesel designed his engine to run on hemp oil.

But I know, allowing industrial hemp would send a message to our children that we are so paranoid about people smoking pot that we would be stupid enough to ban a perfectly safe and viable product that could create new industries in Illinois, tens of thousands of jobs, and more profitable family farms all without making it any easier for even one college kid to get stoned.

Comment by Jeff Trigg Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 3:37 pm
As well, Jeff, indutrial hemp would make for interesting brush fires.

Comment by Bubs Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 5:32 pm
I think you’re joking Bubs, but just in case, a person could inhale all the smoke from a brush fire of industrial hemp and die of smoke inhalation before they’d high. The THC content in industrial hemp is about like a tomato. Dumb college kids can go try to get stoned off the industrial hemp in a field and all they will get is a headache. It certainly is one obvious option to create jobs and reduce poverty.

Comment by Jeff Trigg Thursday, Feb 15, 07 @ 10:27 pm
Amazing how everyone is so quick to place blame on the Dems when IL-19 (that is the REPUBLICAN John Shimkus CD — we now know him as Congressman Zero) has the highest poverty & unemployment rate in the state. The only blame Dems absolutely deserve (Rahmbo especially) is that they completely ignore him. They must love him as much as Rove & Bush do.

I’d also give more consideration to the industrial hemp idea. IL-19 farmers (& destitute Indian reservations) would greatly benefit from such a versatile crop. Definitely beats ethanol for fuel. Unfortunately, the DEA will never allow it. They can’t tell the difference (although there are many!) between industrial hemp & illegal MJ.

Comment by Philosophe Forum Friday, Feb 16, 07 @ 7:03 am
The continuing industrialization of agriculture in the midwest will do nothing to reverse the trend of depopulation of rural areas.

Rich, my point about third world countries was that many of their economies are based upon resource extraction and that is largely the business of rural Illinois. This is leading toward a two tiered class system with wealth building into fewer hands of producers and poverty increasing in the remaining service based segment. And much of the wealth that is produced is leaving the local economy and building wealth in the industries that provide production inputs and manufacture the end products of agriculture. I think that if you examine the base of many rural towns in Illinois you will find that many residents are sustained by commuting to jobs in some of the larger towns in addition to social security and assistance checks. Agricultural related jobs are simply not the base of many rural communities.

And no matter what anyone hypes about ethanol, this oil and coal based production system is simply not sustainable.

Comment by vole Friday, Feb 16, 07 @ 7:41 am
The foundation of Central & So. IL had been the family farmer. That was fine until agribusiness started lobbying for their mega-million subsidies in the Farm Bill — & receiving them.

Any time people see agriculture-based campaign contributions & Cong. Zero pushing for “farmers” in the budget, it’s all wealthy agribusiness. Farm families don’t survive without 1 or 2 other income sources to pay the bills. The result is 2 classes, a disappearing heritage, & a huge debt future generations get to pay.

Comment by Philosophe Forum Friday, Feb 16, 07 @ 9:14 am