And that starts to tip the scales, giving a louder voice to rank-and-file taxpayers long battered by the high personnel, pension and benefit costs imposed on them by Illinois politicians. Those often exorbitant overhead costs have created huge public debts — and threaten to keep taxes rising. Some of the expatriates who’ve spoken to us for our “Illinois Exodus” editorials have said they wanted to be somewhere else when Illinois taxpayers have to confront the consequences of all that spending by their state and local governments.