Editorial: Cooperation, not secession, is best for all of Illinois

There's another proposal on the table to split Illinois into two states - Cook County (or Cook County and the collars) versus everybody else. Like the others before it, this one won't go anywhere.

The economics alone prohibit it. Eight counties in northeastern Illinois recoup 80 cents for every dollar contributed to the state in taxes and other fees, while parts of southern and central Illinois get $2 for every $1 paid, according to a Legislative Research Unit study. Splitting the state would only make downstate Illinois poorer in the short run, and likely the long run as well.

But that fact hasn't prevented the rhetoric from taking a nose-dive into absurdity.

"My people would rather drive on dirt roads than be told what to do from Chicago politicians anymore," says Collin Cliburn of downstate Athens, and the architect of The Illinois Separation, a grass-roots effort to isolate Cook County from the rest of the state.

It's evident that anger, not common sense, is driving this latest effort, just as it has driven the three southern Illinois counties who have declared themselves to be "gun sanctuaries."

So why are we talking about this? Because when you strip away the hyperbole, the extreme regional polarization in this state is only a symptom of a deeper dissatisfaction, rooted in opportunity or the lack thereof. A few short generations ago, you could live almost anywhere in Illinois and have a good life. There has always been more opportunity in the cities and suburbs - the economies of scale provide for better education, culture, health care, transportation and economic opportunity - but the small cities were thriving, with good employment and a closer-knit, relaxed lifestyle that was the envy of countless city dwellers.

Moreover, people moved between northeast Illinois and downstate with regularity, to accommodate jobs or to choose a different lifestyle.

Now, there is less of that, and the differences are more stark. In northeast Illinois, there is growth and possibility. In much of the rest of the state, there is stagnation, and people have trouble seeing their futures and those of their children. Coal mines, for generations a source of good-paying jobs and decent benefits, have closed. Factories and businesses have moved out. Downstate universities are struggling, casting a shadow of uncertainty on their workforces and the communities that support them.

In Harrisburg, on the edge of the breathtaking natural wonder that is the Shawnee National Forest, the high school spent all it had on opening a needed new wing and can't afford to replace its 40-year-old science lab equipment.

Bitterness and division won't solve the problems that Downstate faces. And a messy divorce between northern and southern Illinois certainly isn't the answer. Instead, let's find solutions in rhetoric of cooperation and understanding between the Chicago area and the rest of the state.