My wife and I are proud, life long citizens born, raised, educated, employed and retired right here in Illinois. Our only squabble with Illinois - its long, cold winters. We considered ourselves lucky after retiring to be able to buy a small winter residence in Florida. Net net - we have several years of real world experience living in both states. And the contrast is stark.
That smaller Florida residence is now worth nearly twice as much as our Illinois home yet our real estate taxes here in Illinois are twice as much as what we pay in Florida.
There is no state income tax in Florida. Illinois’s “temporary” state income tax keeps on going up.
Illinois’s sales tax is 50% higher than Florida's.
Miami is Florida's biggest city. In terms of violence it is now considered one of the safest cities in the US. Illinois's biggest city - Chicago - is one of the least safe. We can't believe that due to rampant street violence and car jacking we are now leery of even driving down to the city.
Businesses and residents are fleeing Illinois. Just the opposite in Florida.
Illinois’s deficit grows every year. Florida is now running surpluses every year.
One of the biggest differences between the two states is that Florida gets things DONE, especially when it comes to infrastructure. There are numerous examples; I'll site just one.
Everybody knows how devastating hurricane Ian was to Florida. One of the hardest hit was Sanibel, a barrier island that depends on a 2 1/2 mile Causeway bridge to get to the mainland.
This Causeway suffered catastrophic damage not only to the highway itself but to the steel bridge holding it up. There were even two complete 1/4 mile breaches where all that was left was open water. There was no way the majority of Sanibel’s homeowners and businesses could get back to the island.
Well guess what. Florida had the Sanibel Causeway rebuilt and open for use in just 3 weeks. Can you imagine how long it would take Illinois to do that?
The sad fact is that the quality of life here in our beloved Illinois is not what it used to be. It is no longer a well run state!
Old Man Rock
Old School American
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