Jim Dey: They took their money and ran

Apr. 29—It's time once again to dive in to another round of quick takes on the people, places and events that were being talked about over the past week:

Lighter in the wallet

The federal government recently released more bad news state officials will be forced to ignore or deny.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his acolytes just hate it when census studies highlight the state's problem with people leaving the Land of Lincoln.

They say the information is false, prompting members of the state's congressional delegation to lobby the U.S. Census Bureau to change its counting practices.

Well, the feds have struck again — except this time, it's the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS reviews the adjusted gross incomes of those on the move to identify the states that win and lose financially in the movement of people and their incomes.

It's well known that Illinois is not growing in population. That problem is compounded because those leaving the state have higher AGIs than those moving in. That means there's less taxable income.

The IRS recently released migration data for 2020, as compared with 2019.

The top three states losing AGI were California, New York and Illinois. The top three gaining AGI were Florida, Texas and Nevada.

Wirepoints financial analysts recently issued a report based on the IRS numbers.

They show, according to Wirepoints, that "the Illinoisans who fled in 2020 earned, on average, $44,000 more than the residents Illinois gained from other states."

As a consequence, Illinois lost $10.9 billion in AGI. It could have been worse. California lost $29.1 billion, while New York's fell by $24.5 billion.

Meanwhile, Florida gained $39 billion in AGI, Texas $10.9 billion and Nevada $4.6 billion.

Analysts Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner said the "problem with chronic outflows" is that they "don't only affect the tax base the year they leave, but they also hurt all subsequent years."

"The losses pile on top of each other," they wrote.

Down the up elevator

Superminority Republicans have a hard time attracting media attention in Springfield.

But state Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, solved that problem this week — he walked into an elevator that immediately and unexpectedly dropped.

"Illinois senator gets stuck in falling elevator," screamed one headline.

Rose, who said it must have been a "slow news day," was also interviewed on television. Breathless news accounts make up for the lack of drama in an incident that Rose said happened so fast, "it was over before it began."

"Rose was on his way to a meeting, hopping on an elevator on the fourth floor. It started to drop as soon as the doors closed," one news service reported. "It plummeted all the way down to the second floor, a drop of about 40 feet."

Video showed Rose smiling as he exited the elevator, where he was stuck for 20 minutes before workers, presumably not Democrats, opened the doors to facilitate his exit.

He said the sudden fall and jarring stop was "unsettling," "unnerving" and a bit distracting in the aftermath. But the sometime master of the mixed metaphor put the issue in context by elevating his rhetoric to Shakesperean heights.

"All's well that ends well," Rose told reporters.

He keeps giving, but not here

Pritzker was privately pleased last year when one of his arch political foes — multibillionaire Ken Griffin — decided to leave Chicago for Miami.

Griffin led the opposition to Pritzker's proposed graduated-income tax-amendment to the Illinois Constitution. But Griffin saw too many other Pritzker-backed proposals become law to stick around.

Charitable organizations in Illinois and Chicago, however, were not pleased by Griffin's departure, because he took his philanthropic giving with him.

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While an Illinois resident, Griffin lavished many millions on charitable endeavors that included education, public recreation and art.

So far, Pritzker's political gain is Florida's philanthropic gain, because Griffin is proving as generous there as he was here.

He recently established a $20 million scholarship fund for Miami-Dade high school graduates to attend Miami-Dade College. School officials said it was the largest gift the college ever received.

He donated $25 million to Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami so it can build a new state-of-the-art surgical tower.

As a supporter of physical fitness who supported running/biking trails in Chicago, the 54-year-old Florida native also donated $5 million to finance the construction of 50 mini-soccer fields for children in Miami-Dade County.

He has, of course, made recent donations outside of Florida. They include $25 million to Success Academy, New York City's largest charter-school operator, and $300 million to Harvard University.

Long time coming

It was 2017 when federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against various and sundry figures related to corruption in big-time college basketball.

Not a whole lot came from the criminal probe — minor convictions, short sentences, firings of assistant coaches — into allegations that major basketball school officials were colluding with shoe company representatives to attract major talent. The biggest casualty was the shotgun resignation of former Arizona/current Xavier coach Sean Miller.

Arizona is the latest school to get a slap on the wrist from the NCAA in connection with what's now mostly legal under new name, image and likeness rules.

But the cases of Kansas and Louisiana State remain unresolved.

News reports say officials at Kansas, where former Illini head coach Bill Self runs the basketball program, recently met with the NCAA's Independent Accountability Resolutions Process committee.

The Jayhawks face serious accusations that include head coach responsibility and lack of institutional control.

Self fans need not worry, because he signed a bulletproof contract that allows him to keep his job no matter what. Plus, Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod pledged "unwavering support for Coach Self and our men's basketball program."

The well-liked Self is a hoops god on campus, where winning basketball ranks near the top of institutional priorities.

Passing of a prurient

It would be inappropriate not to acknowledge the passing of the master — nay, make that grandmaster — of televised sleaze.

Talk-show host Jerry Springer passed away this week at 79.

His show was mostly dedicated to proving a forum for those on the lower end of the socio-economic ladder to disclose their sometimes-unusual problems so those better off could laugh at them.

It was cynical, to be sure, but so profitable it led to copycat programming. News outlets reporting on Springer's death (me, too) happily gave examples of his more outrageous episodes — "I slept with 251 men in 10 Hours," "I'm a breeder for the Klan" and "I married a Horse."

The horse show sounds interesting, horses normally being averse to matrimony. These shows were not educational exercises, but horse races to the bottom.

As a consequence, Springer boasted that he had "ruined the culture."

Springer was by nature shameless, a natural who entered politics and TV journalism before hosting his syndicated show.

Actually, his political career could have been one of his show subjects. While serving as mayor of Cincinnati and running for governor of Ohio, Springer disclosed he had patronized a prostitute and paid her by check.

Wikipedia estimated Springer's net worth at $60 million. Give him credit for that, too. Springer may have sold out, but in a show of true entrepreneurial spirit, he insisted on top dollar.