Planning to leave Illinois for Florida? Consider these facts first

In his speech to a police union in Elmhurst, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had an applause line when he asked how many future residents of Florida were in the room. Those attendees planning to retire to the Sunshine State should know that it has a higher crime rate than Illinois, a fact all the more remarkable in that Florida’s population is significantly older.

That many of his listeners may retire to Florida anyway reflects a fundamental fact about American political economy: Support for retirees is provided nationally and follows beneficiaries wherever they choose to go; support for young people is provided by states and localities, which individuals can choose to leave.

Florida could not sustain itself with its current age structure, weighted toward older people. It is dependent on other states to educate and develop young workers who will fund public retirement programs and later move to Florida.

Beyond that, Florida benefits from its unique geography without paying the full costs that go with its natural setting. Given its suitability to agriculture and tourism, Florida can fund its state government largely on sales and receipts taxes, but the state is effectively subsidized by the federal flood insurance program and other forms of federal disaster aid. Just as Illinois and its communities must fund snow removal on their own, Florida should devote far more of its bounty on addressing entirely predictable weather disasters that go with a semi-tropical climate. Joseph S. Harrington, CPCU, Morton Grove