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http://www.ilga.gov/commission/lru/ILCountyDataBoo k.pdf
Check pages 6-7 (pdf# 14-15). Your income hotspots are the chicago area and the champaign - bloomington - decatur triangle. And we're not just talking 18% higher income, either. Your high unemployment areas are concentrated in the NW and SE. Check the revenue stats for individual counties. Dupage (one of the areas I used to live in) generates 1.7 billion and only gets back about 500 million. To make up for the huge shortchanging, the wealthier counties have to pass high local sales taxes to generate revenue they can actually keep. OTOH, many southern counties get back 100-200% more state funding than they generate.

Back to the parent troll... Illinois' low income and high unemployment come from the red parts of the state. The blue areas are holding their own, and propping up a lot of other areas as well. Illinois' higher unemployment and lower adjusted income vs. Missouri is not because it's a blue state, it's because it's got so much red state in it.

Go to this website: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/default.asp Then on the left hand corner of the screen is a thing called "Search by Number". In the blank space right below it type "HB4023" without the quotes. Then in the top left hand corner click "Full Text". Sorry i couldn't find a direct link that could work.

I sent letters to my state senator and representative encouraging them to vote against it when and if the opportunity came up, and I fully encourage any other Illinois residents to do the same. If you're not sure who your state senator and representative are, you can find out at Project Vote Smart by entering your 9-digit ZIP code. If your state senator is on the Environment & Energy Committee it's even more important that you get in touch with them.

My letter (adjusted appropriately for the recipient) reads:

Senator,

I just became aware of Senator Rauschenberger's attempt to modify Illinois state law to completely ban municipalities, counties, cities and other political divisions within the state from offering data connection services in Senate bill 499 (specifically, amendment 001).

As one of your constituents I'd like to strongly encourage you to work against this attempt at ensuring that poorly-served areas of the state remain poorly-served.

By banning political entities from offering any kind of data services this modification ensures that in areas where no commercial carrier finds it cost-effective to offer services those services will remain completely unavailable even if the residents of an area are willing to provide them for themselves through local government. Even more, even if the infrastructure already exists because the municipality requires it for other uses, it will not be legally allowed for that infrastructure to be made available. This modification prevents the provision of data services that for the most part don't even directly compete with the broadband carriers that are pushing for these limitations - in particular it means that such options as inexpensive low-speed wireless access will not be available, even though that sort of low-cost connection would provide exactly what many people need as it did with the Minitel service in other countries.

The phrasing of the amendment is also very suspect - what precisely is a "political subdivision of this State," and does that phrasing mean that if this becomes law that all libraries that currently offer wireless Internet access to their patrons must immediately shut it down? Overall Senator Rauschenberger's proposal is an overreaching attempt to limit the options available to Illinois voters in a transparent attempt to cater to large phone and cable companies that aren't even based in Illinois, and I hope I can count on you to oppose it.

Sincerely,

I sent letters to my state senator and representative encouraging them to vote against it when and if the opportunity came up, and I fully encourage any other Illinois residents to do the same. If you're not sure who your state senator and representative are, you can find out at Project Vote Smart by entering your 9-digit ZIP code. If your state senator is on the Environment & Energy Committee it's even more important that you get in touch with them.

My letter (adjusted appropriately for the recipient) reads:

Senator,

I just became aware of Senator Rauschenberger's attempt to modify Illinois state law to completely ban municipalities, counties, cities and other political divisions within the state from offering data connection services in Senate bill 499 (specifically, amendment 001).

As one of your constituents I'd like to strongly encourage you to work against this attempt at ensuring that poorly-served areas of the state remain poorly-served.

By banning political entities from offering any kind of data services this modification ensures that in areas where no commercial carrier finds it cost-effective to offer services those services will remain completely unavailable even if the residents of an area are willing to provide them for themselves through local government. Even more, even if the infrastructure already exists because the municipality requires it for other uses, it will not be legally allowed for that infrastructure to be made available. This modification prevents the provision of data services that for the most part don't even directly compete with the broadband carriers that are pushing for these limitations - in particular it means that such options as inexpensive low-speed wireless access will not be available, even though that sort of low-cost connection would provide exactly what many people need as it did with the Minitel service in other countries.

The phrasing of the amendment is also very suspect - what precisely is a "political subdivision of this State," and does that phrasing mean that if this becomes law that all libraries that currently offer wireless Internet access to their patrons must immediately shut it down? Overall Senator Rauschenberger's proposal is an overreaching attempt to limit the options available to Illinois voters in a transparent attempt to cater to large phone and cable companies that aren't even based in Illinois, and I hope I can count on you to oppose it.

Sincerely,