April 8, 2015

By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

Almost three out of four small town and rural residents across Illinois (73 percent) think overall economic prospects for families in the state will be worse in the next five years. This is according to a poll reported on recently by a rural research unit at Western Illinois University.
The same poll of 1,450 respondents found that almost half (49.5 percent) consider Illinois a poor place to live, versus only 26 percent who think it a good place.
And almost half (47 percent) think their quality of life has become worse in the past five years, with only 11 percent feeling it has become better.
Talk about singing the blues.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.