More than half of Illinois voters and one-third of Chicago voters said high taxes were their No. 1 concern. Despite that, Springfield and Chicago politicians both are hiking taxes again to spend more.
More than half of Illinois voters polled said high taxes were the No. 1 issue facing the state, according to a survey conducted for the Illinois Policy Institute.
High taxes were the top issue impacting the state for 52% of the 929 registered Illinois voters polled Oct. 8-10 for the institute by M3 Strategies. Half as many were worried about the economy, the No. 2 concern.
Voters in the city of Chicago also ranked high taxes as their No. 1 worry. Taxes topped the concerns of 35% of the 530 Chicagoans polled Oct. 17-20.
The October poll marked the first time this year Chicago’s likely general election voters ranked high taxes as a bigger concern than crime.
While both the statewide and Chicago-specific polls showed high taxes had voters worried, their elected representatives are continuing to raise taxes rather than control spending.
Lawmakers in Springfield approved new taxes Oct. 31 to keep Chicago-area public transit running. They intend to hike toll road fees and raise the sales tax in Cook County and its collar counties by 0.25 percentage points.
And in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson has pursued over $500 million in new taxes on a range of goods and services, including streaming, Uber, sports betting and social media.
Polled voters have repeatedly said taxes are too high. When Illinois politicians fail to listen, those voters move to states where politicians do listen.
Illinois managed to lose a resident to another state every 9 minutes and 21 seconds between July 2023 and June 2024. Since 2020, the state has lost a total of 420,678 residents to other states, according to census estimates.
Just in Chicago, 128,034 people moved out in the decade before 2024 – leaving Chicago with its lowest population in 100 years.
If Illinois state and Chicago city politicians continue to ignore why so many Illinoisans are waving “goodbye,” they should expect the exodus to continue – leaving them fewer people to tax.
Toplines are available here for the Illinois statewide voter poll.
Toplines are available here for the Chicago voter poll.
