SE Illinois News

Newly elected state Rep. Paul Jacobs (R-Carbondale) is convinced a return to the basics is the only way to fix Springfield.

“If we change the way our legislators think we can change the whole attitude in Springfield,” Jacobs told the SE Illinois News. “We must get away from a career as a politician and more to a citizen statesman as it was designed in the beginning.”

Anything short of that, Jacobs fears, will only lead to more of the same, including a maddening pattern that has made Illinois home to one of only four states to lose population over the last decade.

According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, the state has lost nearly 170,000 people since 2010 with 93 of its 102 counties also suffering shrinkage. Overall, at least 10 different counties have suffered population decline over that same time.

Jacobs suspects it’s all because so many residents feel cheated by the system.

“The outmigration is a fairly simple entity to explain,” he added. “With still some of the highest taxes combined in the U.S., it’s a fairly simple answer. What we receive for these high taxes is often much less than what we should receive. Our classrooms should be funded extremely well, but all you hear is how underfunded we are.”

Again, Jacobs thinks there is a relatively simple solution. 

“We can fix this by electing legislators that have had experience in business and balancing their budgets,” he said. “It’s time for the people of Illinois to elect people that will fix not continue down the same path that has been taken for years and years. Term limits would be a partial answer, ethics reform, which seems really redundant, is absolutely essential. In restructuring some of the things that legislators can and cannot do it might not be a bad idea to limit the amount of money that can be spent on campaigns.”

Deeper analysis shows that downstate counties have particularly suffered, with the region losing 144,000 residents or 3.2% of its 2010 population over the same time period.

Still, Jacobs remains optimistic.

“I believe that the change that is needed is going to be started with the General Assembly, specifically the 102nd General Assembly,” he said. “We have so many things that we must do from balancing a terrible budget from before COVID to now life in Illinois after COVID. Fully one-third of our businesses have closed. But I think that’s going to be an opportunity for others to move back into the state, young millennials with an obvious knowledge of good real estate bargains and a fresh new thought on businesses in Illinois. These people will begin to vote legislators in that identify with what they are trying to do.”