Researchers asked 1,002 Chicagoans about their city’s economy and here’s what they said
Hint: It wasn’t pretty.
Fewer than 1 in 5 Chicagoans think the city’s economy is becoming more prosperous.
That’s according to a newly released poll of more than 1,000 people living in Chicago and nearby counties. Koski Research prepared the report, “The View from Chicago,” for financial-services firm Charles Schwab.
A vast majority of residents believe their city’s debt and continued high crime are crushing opportunity: 84 percent agree that “[g]overnment debt is hurting economic growth in the Chicago area,” while 85 percent think “[c]rime is hurting the Chicago economy.”
And City Hall’s proposed solution to its debt problem – the largest tax hike in modern Chicago history – isn’t what Chicagoans were looking for. More than 80 percent of respondents to the July survey disagreed with the statement: “Tax rates in the Chicago area are reasonable.”
Over half the respondents graded the city at a C or below on the following attributes:
- A place to raise a family
- A place for the middle class
- A place where a child can receive a good education
- A place to spend your retirement years
- A place where recent graduates can afford to live
When asked whether living in Chicago helps or hurts their ability to reach their financial goals, a paltry 19 percent selected, “It helps – living in [the] Chicago area provides me with the opportunity to be financially successful.” Nearly 40 percent said that living in Chicago hurt their ability to reach their financial goals.
This survey response is reflected in a stark reality: A flatlining Chicago population – the city gained only 82 residents last year – and a heavy outflow of people from Cook County.
More than 15,000 taxpayers left Cook County on net in tax year 2012, the most recent year of taxpayer data available from the Internal Revenue Service. That’s a 60 percent increase in net out-migration from the previous year.
Out-migration in 2011 and 2012 will cost Cook County nearly $30 billion in taxable income over the next decade. And that’s not including the future incomes of the kids who left the county along with their parents: Cook County lost nearly 45,000 dependents on net in those two years alone.
The consequences of Cook County’s tax-and-spend status quo are being borne out in the Windy City. Residents aren’t just venting to pollsters, they’re voting with their feet.