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You say that like it's a bad thing. We punish our corrupt politicians here.

Most other states either reward them, or quietly move on to the next one.

It's important because the legislation included prioritizing minority ownership of dispensaries, and set up a system to "clear the cannabis-related records of nonviolent offenders through an efficient combination of automatic expungement, gubernatorial pardon and individual court action" and "20% of the revenue generated by legalization will go toward funding for mental health and substance abuse services in Illinois. An additional 10% will go to pay down the state's backlog of unpaid bills; which directly benefits hospitals, health care and social service providers in every community across the state," among other things.

That's a whole lot better than a referendum that says "It's legal now."

Edit: And I'm pretty sure that the reason it has to go to a ballot referendum is because the legislature won't do anything about it. Illinois didn't need a referendum.

That just says that they didn’t have enough public support for it to pass it like every other state has with a direct vote.

I seriously doubt that. Pretty much every state is polling showing strong support for pot being legal. Do you think blue Illinois, with both blue executive and legislative branches, wasn't just going to do it beacuse thats a goal of the dems?

Besides, even if the people didn't like it, they can also petition the criminalize again too and then that goes to a referendum.

Deteriorating public transit system.

I'm assuming you're talking about Chicago, since pretty much nowhere else even has a proper public transit system - which is something any non-urban area in the country suffers from. Between CTA trains and CTA buses, you can get pretty much anywhere in Chicago pretty much any time of the day or night. Metra regional rail is not bad for being able to get in and out of the city from all the collar counties, and some beyond.

Endless road construction.

Yeah, that's a thing that happens in a place that has hot summers and cold winters. Roadways don't last forever. Would you prefer they be left unrepaired?

Skyrocketing taxes.

Source? Everything I see shows that tax rates in Illinois, while they have risen over the years (decades), there's no way they could be described as "skyrocketing." Besides that, only state income tax and state sales tax are at the state level. Other sales taxes are done by municipalites, property tax assessments are done by the county, and a good portion of property taxes pay for your local school district. Can't really blame the state for those.

Growing homeless population.

There are about 14,000 homeless people in Illinois. That's 0.11% of the population of the state.

Increasing opioid deaths.

That one is actually true! Opioid deaths in Illinois have increased 2,736% since 2013. However, "Illinois ranked 24th in the country for overall drug overdose fatality rate in 2019." So right in the middle. Opioids specifically, and drug overdose generally, is a national problem, not one that is somehow specific to Illinois.

Cost of living in Illinois is relatively low though. If you're outside the cities even within 30 minutes to am hope from the city is not terrible. I don't have an opinion on living in Chicago since I'm not there but things are getting better. Also road construction is a good thing, it means they aren't just letting it deteriorate. Per CDC data opioid death rates in Illinois are consistent with the rest of the United States.