Recently on Chicago Tonight, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton pushed back on Governor Rauner's requests for reforms to go along with new revenue in the budget by saying:

His view of how bad off the state is is a view that I don't agree with. I think they talk amongst themselves about, "Everybody's going to Florida!" Instead the state is doing very well in many areas.

You can watch the comments below at the 8-minute mark:

Unfortunately for John Cullerton and the rest of us in Illinois, the truth is the state is in very bad shape in many areas and we are losing both population and wealth at a rapid pace.

According to a new report from the Illinois Policy Institute, the rate at which people are leaving the state has reached an all­-time high. In fact, according to an analysis of IRS data, during 2013 one resident and $50,000 in annual, taxable, income moved out of Illinois every 6.5 minutes. Officials with Illinois Policy say those figures are on net, and are calculated after taking into account all people who moved into the state.

Some other key findings from the Illinois Policy Institute’s analysis of the new IRS data:

  • Illinois lost residents on a net basis to 45 of the 50 states, including every neighboring state and every other state in the Midwest.

  • Texas had the biggest net gain of Illinoisans; the IRS reported that Illinois lost 14,739 people on net to Texas in 2013.

    • Illinois suffered a net loss of 6,575 Illinoisans to Indiana in 2013

    • Illinois suffered a net loss of 4,757 Illinoisans to Wisconsin in 2013

    • Illinois suffered a net loss of 2,262 Illinoisans to Iowa in 2013

The full analysis is available online here. Riley & I talked with Michael Lucci from Illinois Poilcy to discuss the report:

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