Shrinking U.S. States 2018

Illinois is at risk of a death spiral due to pension obligations. The fewer people that remain in the state, the higher the pension burden will be on those remaining. This will mean higher taxes, which will incentive more people to leave. One solution: repeal the Pension Source Tax Act. This would allow Illinois to assess taxes on retirees who take their pension and flee to a low-tax state such as Florida. Unfortunately the best solution may be to accelerate the path to bankruptcy so that the state can escape weight of excessive pension obligations sooner rather than later. Taxes are simply too high in Illinois given the level of services that the population receives. Here's how screwed they are.