Brad Weisenstein: Illinois is shrinking as taxes drive a mass exodus

Sherry Arnold moved back to Illinois to be near her grandbaby. It only took a few years for Illinois’ taxes to drive her back out.

“They doubled my property taxes last year,” Arnold said. “I had three acres separate from the house. When I called and asked about appealing, they said, Yeah, we haven’t touched the tax on the house for a while and you bought it for this, and we think it’s worth this. So if you complain about the property, we’ll raise the house tax, too.”

Add in a doubled gasoline tax among 20 new and higher Illinois tax and fee hikes atop record state income tax hikes in 2011 and again in 2017, plus the prospect of more hikes through a progressive state income tax, and Arnold was done with Illinois. She worried taxes would eat her retirement income. She calculated moving from Collinsville to Missouri would save $2,000 a year just in taxes.