POLITICS: JB Pritzker is acting presidential — to bad his state is in shambles

JB Pritzker made headlines when he called for “mass protests” against the Trump administration. There’s no question, the second-term governor of Illinois is positioning himself for a presidential run, as he crisscrosses the country lauding his time serving the citizens of the Prairie State.

“We enshrined reproductive rights into law. We legalized cannabis. We protected labor rights. We joined the US Climate Alliance,” he told a packed room in New Hampshire in late April. “I’m not going to go through the rest.” 

But what he’s not telling the crowd about Illinois is precisely what Americans need to know most. 

Americans are more worried today about the nation’s financial problems than they’ve been in a decade. A recent Gallup poll found that 81% of Americans are personally concerned a “great deal” or “fair amount” about federal spending and the federal deficit. 

A federal government run like the state of Illinois would do little to quell their fears. Today, Illinois has more than $200 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, with the state’s government pension systems hovering around 50% funded. (By comparison, even the most conservative estimates place New York state’s pension fund at 99% funded.) It’s bad news for pensioners, who live with the uncertainty of not knowing if a retirement check from the state could bounce. It’s perhaps even worse news for Illinois taxpayers, who are on the hook for such enormous liabilities. 

Already, Illinoisans are taxed to the hilt. WalletHub recently named Illinois the state with the single highest state and local tax bill in the nation. The median Illinois household pays $13,099 each year to a complicated web of government entities. I personally pay taxes to 17 different levels of government, including the state, three school districts, a mosquito abatement district, water reclamation district, park district, health facilities, forest preserve and more. That’s in addition to sales taxes, gas taxes, grocery taxes and other nickel-and-dime taxes I pay. 

Where does all this money go? For one, Illinois is well known for its storied history of political favoritism and corruption, which makes government especially expensive to maintain. Just this week, the Department of Justice announced that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is under investigation for racial based hiring at City Hall. “When you hire our people, we always look out for everybody else,” Johnson said. 

When it comes to education, Illinois’ public school system is nothing to boast about. More than two-thirds of Illinois eighth graders are not proficient in reading or math, according to results from the recent National Assessment of Education Progress. Worse, the public school system in Illinois fails minority children the most. Only 16% of black eighth graders are proficient at reading, and only 8% of black Illinois eighth graders do math at grade level. 

Yet at the same time, Illinois spends more per pupil on public education than every other state in the Midwest and 40 other states in the US. Fiscal watchdog Wirepoints reported that, according to 2022 Census data, Illinois lays out $21,700 annually in average local, state and federal dollars per public school student. How’s that for a sorry return on investment?

Pritzker is counting on his Illinois track record and fiery anti-Trump rhetoric to direct voters his way. But it hasn’t been enough to keep Illinoisans from leaving; the state tops the charts for out-migration. 

The Illinois Policy Institute reports that Illinois ranks third in the nation for highest out-migration to other states. Illinois’ loss of 56,235 residents in 2024 is only beaten by California, which lost 239,575 residents, and New York, which lost 120,917 residents. When Illinois’ population has grown in recent years, it is due to a massive influx of international migrants. 

By comparison, the red states of Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina rank first, second and third for migration into their states, respectively. The Institute reported that on net 85,267 people flocked to Texas from July 2023 to June 2024, 82,288 residents moved to North Carolina, and more than 68,000 people came to South Carolina. 

All of this begs the question of how Pritzker could be elected to two terms. That’s not a complex puzzle. Besides the fact that many residents are voting with their feet, much of the Democrat’s success is due to his party’s stronghold in Chicago and the failings of the state’s Republican Party. 

Is Illinois the utopia Pritzker claims? No, far from it. Rather, as the average resident would tell you, Pritzker is just another politician who’s too big for his britches. 

Diana Sroka Rickert, a writer based in Chicago, is a former vice president at the Illinois Policy Institute.