Priorities

Anyone who has ever driven from Illinois into Iowa, Indiana, or Wisconsin notices something immediately. The road improves when they leave Illinois. In an op-ed at the Wall Street Journal Steve Malanga remarks on “why service is lousy in high tax states”:

These face-offs between states are part of a larger national debate that has intensified this year as new Democratic governors in California, Connecticut, Illinois and New Jersey push to raise taxes even higher. They say higher taxes are necessary to pay for better services. But it’s far from clear that the already-high taxes in these Democratic strongholds have created better government and happy residents. People in states with high taxes are more likely to say they are eager to move elsewhere, and polls show residents increasingly questioning whether they are getting value for government “investment.”

Seven of the eight states with the highest percentages of people who want to move elsewhere are solidly Democratic in party affiliation, according to Gallup polling. Most are high-tax environments. “Even after controlling for various demographic characteristics including age, gender, race and ethnicity, and education, there is still a strong relationship between total state tax burden and desire to leave one’s current state of residence,” Gallup concludes.

The reasons for this are obvious. Politicians have priorities. The relative priorities of politicians are, in descending order of importance:

  • The power and fortunes of politicians and their families
  • The financial interests of major constituencies, in many cases public employees
  • Everything else

Here in Illinois “everything else” is barely registering on the political interest-o-meter.

1 comment… add one
  • Andy Link

    Yes, the roads are one reason driving through Chicago sucks.

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