[Illinois] Knox County on warning list

from the Galesburg Register
Local indicators worse than state average; Rock Island also cited

By JOHN R. PULLIAM

The Register-Mail
GALESBURG - Knox County has been put on the Poverty Warning List, according to the 2006 Report on Illinois Poverty, released today by the Illinois Poverty Summit.

Only eight - compared to 13 in 2005 - of the state's 102 counties are on the Warning List. Of those, three, including Knox, are completely north of Illinois 136, which passes through the Macomb area. One county, Vermilion - where Danville is located - is partially north of that highway. Most of the poorest counties are in deep southern Illinois.

Knox County was on the Watch List in the 2005 report. Rock Island County, which also is on the Poverty Warning List, was not on either list in the 2005 report.

A cluster of counties east of Knox County - Stark, Peoria, Marshall, Woodford and LaSalle - are on the Watch List, as is McDonough County. Fulton County was moved off the Poverty Watch List.

To determine the watch and warning lists, the report looks at four indicators of residents' well-being: high school graduation, unemployment, teen births and poverty. Counties are evaluated on a point system, with points given to a county if its rate is more than the state average and/or if the scores are worse than the previous year (for a total of eight points). Counties that score four or five points are put on the Watch List; those that score six to eight points are on the warning list. There are 39 Illinois counties on the 2006 Poverty Watch or Warning lists, down from 58 in 2005.

Knox County has a worse rate in all four major categories than the state average. There are some bright spots. Housing is affordable, with the fair market rent for a two-bedroom unit being $520 per month, compared to the state average of $802.

State Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, said he wishes Knox County was not on the warning list, but, "I think this helps strengthen our position of some things that we need and some efforts we need to make.

"First of all, the awareness is a problem. Illinois is so diverse there are places that are growing ... and jobs are plentiful," he said. Moffitt said the county is unique with the loss of thousands of jobs because of Maytag and Butler closing. Last year, he introduced the concept of Charter Economic Opportunity Zones.

"The House leadership was of the opinion that we've got lots of programs and they're working," Moffitt said. "It (the report) helps make the argument I was making."

Moffitt said the rules would have to be different in Economic Opportunity Zones.

For instance, "when jobs were created, the state income tax attached to any new jobs could stay with the employer to help defray the cost of doing business," he said. "In effect it would be a lower cost of doing business."

The report was presented in Springfield at the sixth annual meeting of the Illinois Poverty Summit, a bipartisan group that analyzes poverty trends in the state. The organization provides services to the homeless and low-income populations, and attempts to develop long-term solutions to entrenched and emerging poverty issues.

The picture for the entire state is grim. The report finds that Illinois' poverty rate is the worst in the Midwest. The state lags behind the rest of the region on 15 key poverty indicators, including employment outlook, housing affordability and education spending.

"The state must re-evaluate why we continue to come in dead last in areas as critical as child poverty and offering decent paying jobs to Illinois residents," said Sid Mohn, president of Heartland Alliance.

Of the more than 12 million people living in Illinois, more than 1.5 million are living in poverty. Thirty-one Illinois counties saw an increase in the poverty rate from 2002 to 2003.

There were bright spots in Knox County. The poverty rate dropped during the period, as did the teen birth rate.

Illinois has more payday loan stores than state-chartered banks. Of all households in the state, only 32.6 percent have checking accounts and just 57.7 percent have savings accounts. The state ranks second worst in the nation is small business ownership.

Making the problem worse is the state's budget crisis. According to the report, while the state has struggled to balance the budget, at times facing more than $1 billion in red ink, human services programs such as emergency assistance, crisis nurseries, state and family children's assistance and employability development services were cut.

Since the first Report on Illinois Poverty, 342,716 more Illinoisans are in poverty, from 10 percent in 1999 to 12.4 percent in 2004. According to the report, roughly 7,091 Knox County residents are living in poverty. Nearly 25 percent of Illinois workers made less than $9.28 per hour in 2004, which is equivalent to poverty wages for a family of four.

"Hopefully, the vivid portrayal of the social disaster of poverty will harness energy for a renewed anti-poverty effort in individual states and in the nation as a whole," according to the introduction to the report.