As a graduate of the University of Illinois and a former coach, it's great to read about our football and volleyball teams rise in the polls. Women's volleyball is #1 in all recent polls. Yesterday, the Associated Press Top 25 placed Illinois at #19. Even better news came from the USA Today Top 25 where we ranked #16! This is encouraging, motivating news to the Illinois coaches and student-athletes, as well as to Illini fans. Our state flagship university also enjoys high academic rankings compared to all public schools throughout the nation. We can be proud of the University of Illinois.



Yesterday, I attended a meeting at the Champaign Public Library where Brian Costin from the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute gave some disturbing rankings about the state of Illinois. He presented statistical analysis of Illinois' performance versus the 49 other states compiled by Steve Moore, Art Laffer, and Jonathan Williams. These men have developed a comprehensive economic performance index called the ALEC-Laffer State Competitive Index. Quoting from this index, Illinois ranks as follows:

• "47th in economic outlook. Neighboring Missouri and Indiana rank well ahead in terms of future opportunity, at 15th and 29th respectively."
• "44th in GDP growth, averaging only 4.95% per year from 1998-2008 while the U.S. average was 6.59%."
• "37th in debt burden. Illinois continues to spend government revenue growth on government expansion rather than funding past debt obligations, including pensions."
• "36th in personal income per capita growth, averaging 4.5% from 1998-2008, while the U.S. average is 5.1%."
• "48th in employment growth from 1998 till 2008, ranking ahead of only Michigan and Ohio."
• "48th in absolute domestic migration, with 637,979 people leaving the state from 1999-2008. Only two states - California and New York - lost more people."
• "7th highest in median property taxes paid on homes in 2009"
• "14th highest in number of days spent working in 2010 to pay federal, state, and local government taxes"
• "6th highest in gas tax burden"
• "1st in sales tax burden (Chicago and Cook County) of a major U.S. city"

Some of the solutions will not be easy or popular. Above all other factors, Illinois needs to be a more business friendly state. We must unwind the state and local statutes, rules, regulations, and high permits and fees which are unfriendly to private sector job growth. Instead of increasing government bureaucracy, we need to downsize it. We must lower personal and corporate taxes to attract more private sector business to this state, and to encourage entrepreneurs and investors to create more jobs. Mr. Costin encouraged everyone to look at www.illinoispolicy.org to learn more about the policies and mind set needed to turn around these terrible rankings. These positive private sector job creating changes can be done, as they have recently in Indiana, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Missouri.



Go Illini!