(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker continues to downplay and cast doubt on Illinois’ population losses, despite U.S. Census data evidence to the contrary.
The U.S. Census released updated county population numbers late last month. In Illinois, from July 2020 through July 2021, the state lost residents in 92 of its 102 counties.
According to the numbers, the state’s three largest counties were also hit by losses. Cook County lost 68,314 residents, second most in the nation only behind Los Angeles County in California, while Illinois’ DuPage County lost 5,547, and Lake County lost 3,010.
Some of the state’s most rural communities also saw a loss in population as Alexander, Henderson, Perry and Lawrence counties led the state in population decline as a share of the population.
At an unrelated event on Tuesday, Pritzker said the reports are exaggerated.
"We all talked about the exodus from the state of Illinois, which I want to contend to you that some of that data was wrong," Pritzker said. "We saw they do a survey year after year called The American Community Survey, and it said hundreds of thousands of people were leaving every year. Then we did an actual count, the census count in 2020, and it turns out, no, we actually gained population."
But Illinois lost a seat in the U.S. Congress during reapportionment because of significant population loss after that 2020 Census loss.
Illinois Policy Institute’s Bryce Hill told The Center Square that the numbers are the numbers, no matter which way Pritzker tries to spin them.
"Whether it be Census Bureau estimates, whether it be tax records from the IRS, whether it be moving day surveys, they all point to the same thing, which is that hundreds of thousands of people are leaving the state of Illinois every year," Hill said.
Pritzker said one of the main reasons the state is seeing a population decrease is due to many students choosing to attend out of state colleges.
"One of the things that we found out in looking at all the data was that the largest contingent of people that were leaving the state back then were high school graduates that were choosing to go to college out of state," Pritzker said.
Hill suggests people are leaving due to employment, housing and other problems such as high taxes and pension debts.
"The biggest thing is going to be number one, property taxes. I think statewide we have the mechanisms in place to essentially enact a statewide property tax freeze," Hill told The Center Square. "I think that in light of rising home costs and unaffordability crisis when it comes to housing, we should be pursuing a statewide property tax freeze."
Hill said pension debts must also be addressed if the state wants to shore up employment issues as a means to keep people in the state.
"We need to deal with pensions," Hill said. "We need constitutional pension reform to reign in unfunded liabilities and allow for changes in future benefits. Keeping current benefits that retirees have earned but allowing for changes in future unearned benefits."