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New leadership is needed in the 19th District
Every time Chicago and or Illinois is in the press, it’s bad news.
Moody’s article from October 23, 2025:
“Moody’s Investor Services on Thursday upgraded Illinois’ credit rating to A2, the state’s highest mark in more than two decades. But despite the bump, Illinois remains the lowest rated state in the nation.”
Another article, published by the Center Square in the Washington Examiner says:
“Illinois also earned the worst ranking in the nation for unfunded pension liabilities. According to Truth in Accounting, the state has only 43 cents set aside for every dollar it has promised in pension benefits.”
When 32 counties downstate wanted to leave for Indiana, Forbes stepped in to let us know Indiana is the second-best state in the country to start a business.
Illinois is 48th.
Now the Chicago Bears are considering leaving the city for Indiana. What’s next, the Indianapolis Cubs? The state is losing its population and few are arriving to become permanent residents.
How do we repopulate Illinois and create commerce?
I have an idea.
Yesterday 12,000 people turned 65. Today 12,000 people turn 65. Tomorrow 12,000 people turn 65.
Baby boomers are turning 65, and this will continue through 2029. That’s approximately 4.4 million people per year. This could be a possible gold mine for Illinois.
Let’s put a plan in action to keep our seniors by supporting HB5570 and SB2779, which are feasibility studies to separate school funding from our property taxes. Our seniors are getting taxed out of their properties, and many of these seniors have not made us of the public schooling system in decades. Moreover, we cannot attract other seniors with our current school funding system in place.
States such as Indiana, California, and Hawaii have all accomplished this goal, yet Springfield has visionary lawmakers. Moreover, they are all beholden to 32,000 state pensioners earning over $100,000.00 per year. This is unconscionable.
Florida lawmakers have worked assiduously to eliminate property taxes.
However, in Illinois, lawmakers are concentrating on raising all forms of taxes. Illinois does not have a revenue problem, but rather a spending problem, a massive one. If we eliminate taxes on seniors on all fronts, we could keep seniors from fleeing the state and attract older residents to the state.
Here comes the best part: Seniors are grandparents, who visits grandparents? Their kids, and they bring the grandkids. When they do visit, they create economic activity by lodging in hotels, visiting restaurants and go to retail stores to shop.
Just a thought.
Mr. Zimmers is a candidate for 19th District in the Illinois House of Representatives.
