But, in total dollars, Mississippi could be true.

Anyway, I actually clicked to comment because I wanted to note that, as someone who grew up downstate and now lives in Chicago, the prevailing belief (the conventional wisdom) downstate is that all their tax dollars are being sucked up by Springfield and sent to Chicago. And that animosity has grown with Chicagoans holding most, if not all, of the reigns of power in Springfield.

Chicago has long subsidized downstate, and downstate blames Chicago for all its problems.

Downstate Illinois would be a hellhole without Chicago tax dollars flowing there.

What’s equally troubling: the governor is willing to tightly pin much-needed infrastructure investments to gambling — an industry that the Wall Street Journal recently highlighted as “highly vulnerable to the economic downturn” and whose stocks and bonds “have tumbled dramatically” in value.