Lake County Gazette

Gov. J.B. Pritzker can't hide from his role in the state's spiraling outmigration crisis, Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) said.

"From the start, the governor has blamed everything on (former Gov. Bruce) Rauner, but this is now his second year, and a lot needs to be attributed to his policies," Wilcox told the Lake County Gazette. "People just aren't finding Illinois to be conducive to long-term investment when it comes to their children, homes, careers or businesses."

Illinois is one of the states experiencing a large number of residents finding a new home in a different state.

Illinois Policy Institute reports yearly studies from two of the country's largest moving companies recently found that more than 60% of all interstate moves their staffers handled in Illinois in 2020 were of the outbound variety.

In addition, U-Haul researchers found that Illinois ranks second-to-last in the country for inbound moves, largely accounting for the state experiencing its most significant levels of outmigration last year since World War II.

"We need to be taking all of this seriously, but clearly we're not doing so because if we were, we would have a lot of reform bills on the books that we as Republicans have offered up that never get so much as a hearing or a debate," Wilcox said. "We've got to get honest with ourselves about what it will take to change this."

Wilcox said a couple of upcoming events would soon tell how serious the few Democrats in Springfield expressing openness to more bipartisanship truly are.

"The upcoming map session may be a turning point in all this," he said. "It looks like Democrats won't be able to gerrymander districts, and that might drive some of the change we need."