Taxed-Out Seniors Are Leaving — Here’s How Illinois Can Turn the Gray Wave Into Growth

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”. Story by Center Square in the Washington Examiner, “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, 48th. Now the Bears are considering leaving for Indiana, what’s next, the Indianapolis Cubs? Everybody is leaving and nobody's coming. How do we repopulate the state 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. The 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 get school funding off of our property taxes. Our seniors are getting taxed out of their properties, many haven’t had kids in school for over 40 years!

Moreover, we cannot attract other seniors with our current school funding system in place. Indiana, California, and Hawaii have all accomplished this, but Springfield has no forward thinkers, plus they are on the gravy train with 32,000 state pensioners making over $100,000.00 per year, UNCONSCIONABLE! Florida is working on getting rid of property taxes all together. Illinois does not have a revenue problem, but rather a spending problem. If we eliminate taxes on seniors on all fronts, we could keep seniors and attract others. Here comes the best part. Seniors are grandparents, who visits grandparents? Their kids, and they bring the grandkids. What do they do? They stay at hotels, they go to restaurants, and yes, they shop! Better yet, they like to volunteer, imagine the tremendous influence they would have on our kids, versus today’s social media “influencers”. We would be repopulating the state and creating commerce. Just a thought.

John “JZ” Zimmers 

The Original JZ for 19 

Candidate for The House of Representatives in the 19th District