9 Things Illinois and Wisconsin Will Never Agree On
Two NFL teams have lined up against each other 213 times since 1921. Who deserved to win those games is the most public argument Illinois and Wisconsin have never settled.
But it isn’t the only argument.
These are the things Illinois and Wisconsin will never agree on.
Note: This is general information, not tax advice. Illinois and Wisconsin tax brackets, rates, and dollar thresholds are subject to change.
1. Whose Pizza Cut Wins
Illinois gets the postcard credit for deep dish, but Chicago’s own bar regulars usually order something else.
That other pizza is tavern-style, a thin, cracker-crisp crust cut into small squares instead of wedges.
Wisconsin says it got there first, crediting Milwaukee’s Caradaro Club, which opened in 1945.
Chicago’s Vito’s Tavern claims the same breakthrough a year later, in 1946.
Neither side backs down.
Order a “party cut” pie on Chicago’s South Side or a “cracker crust” pie in Milwaukee, and you’ll hear the exact same claim: Theirs came first.
2. Cheesehead: Insult or Badge of Honor
Chicago sports fans coined “cheesehead” as a putdown for Wisconsinites long before Green Bay’s own fans ever wore the word.
Wisconsin flipped the insult in 1987, when Milwaukee-area foam salesman Ralph Bruno carved the first wedge-shaped foam hat out of his mother’s couch cushion.
His company, Foamation, turned the hat into a Wisconsin trademark, and the Green Bay Packers eventually bought the business outright in 2023.
Illinois never let the word go, either.
Chicago sports radio still throws “cheesehead” around as a jab every time the Bears and Packers meet, the same way Illinois fans meant it originally.
Wisconsin hears the same word as team pride, foam hat and all.
Neither side is backing down.
3. Bears Versus Packers Sundays
Since 1921, Illinois and Wisconsin have been arguing about football, starting the day the Chicago Staleys, the team that became the Bears, beat the Packers 20 to 0.
The two teams have met 213 times since then, the most-played rivalry in the National Football League (NFL).
Green Bay now holds the edge in the all-time series.
Bears fans won’t accept that.
Many households near the state line pick a side long before a kid can read a scoreboard, and a Bears jersey worn in a Green Bay bar earns a long, silent stare.
Nobody in either state calls the rivalry settled.
4. Wisconsin’s FIB Nickname
Wisconsin has a nickname for Illinois tourists, and it isn’t a compliment: “Friendly Illinois Brethren” (FIB).
People in Door County and the Dells stick the label on Illinois drivers who tailgate, speed, and treat a small town like a theme park.
That polite version isn’t accurate.
Milwaukee Magazine dug into the term’s history, consulted regional historians and slang dictionaries, and found a profanity swapped in for “Friendly” instead.
Nobody could pin down exactly when or where the label started, whether it grew out of 1980s Door County tourism or a local radio host’s rant about Bears fans and toll booths.
Illinois doesn’t just shrug the label off.
One Chicago transplant told the magazine he’d like to print his own bumper sticker: “Not a FIB.”
It stings both ways.
5. Weed Run South
RiSE in Mundelein sits closer to the Wisconsin border than any other Illinois dispensary, and the parking lot shows it.
Wisconsin still bans recreational marijuana outright, while Illinois legalized it back in 2020.
That gap sends Wisconsinites south almost every weekend.
RiSE lets out-of-state buyers purchase up to 15 grams at a time, half of what Illinois residents can buy.
Wisconsin lawmakers keep proposing legalization of their own.
Each attempt has stalled, and Illinois keeps collecting the tax revenue instead.
Illinois isn’t complaining.
6. Fireworks Run North
Since 1942, Illinois has banned most consumer fireworks, one of only three states in the country that still says no.
Wisconsin says yes.
So every June, Illinoisans point their cars north instead.
Cornellier Fireworks in Beloit, just across the state line, has sold to Illinois families for decades.
Bringing the haul back into Illinois is technically a crime.
Almost nobody driving home with a trunk full of Roman candles worries about that part.
7. Whose Lake Michigan Is It
Illinois has been diverting Lake Michigan water through Chicago’s reversed river for more than a century, and the other Great Lakes states never let it go.
Wisconsin was one of the states that sued over it, and the fight reached the U.S. Supreme Court in Wisconsin v. Illinois.
A federal decree still caps how much Lake Michigan water Illinois can divert through Chicago, 3,200 cubic feet per second, a limit federal courts have revisited more than once since.
Illinois treats that limit as settled law.
Wisconsin and the other Great Lakes states still watch Chicago’s withdrawals closely enough that Illinois needed its own carve-out written into the 2008 Great Lakes Compact, the multistate agreement that otherwise requires unanimous approval before any state pulls more water from the lake.
A century of court orders hasn’t settled who gets to decide how much of the lake belongs to Chicago.
Nobody’s backing off.
8. Tax Line at the Border
Illinois’ tax code applies one flat rate to every paycheck, no matter what a resident earns.
That rate sits at 4.95% for everyone.
Wisconsin does it differently, moving through brackets that top out at 7.65% for its highest earners.
Nobody’s moving.
A family choosing between Zion, Illinois, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, a few exits apart on I-94, runs those numbers before they run anything else.
How Wisconsin’s Top Tax Bracket Works
Wisconsin doesn’t tax every dollar of income at 7.65%.
That top rate only applies to income above $323,290 for a single filer, or $431,060 for a married couple filing jointly.
Wisconsin taxes every dollar below those thresholds at its lower brackets first, starting at 3.5%.
Illinois’ flat 4.95% rate works differently.
It applies the same rate to the first dollar someone earns and the last one.
9. Custard or Italian Beef
Wisconsin built Culver’s around one idea: Fresh frozen custard, richer than regular ice cream, made throughout the day.
Craig and Lea Culver opened the first location in Sauk City in 1984, and the ButterBurger came right along with it.
Illinois never bought in.
Chicago has its own claim to Midwest food fame, the Italian beef sandwich dripping with jus and a hot dog piled with everything except ketchup.
A Chicago dog gets a shrug from many Wisconsinites, who would rather order a ButterBurger.
Ask an Illinoisan about frozen custard, and they’ll change the subject to deep dish.
Psst! How much do you know about Illinois and Wisconsin? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Illinois and Wisconsin IQ
Answer these questions on Illinois and Wisconsin history and geography. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Congress redrew the Illinois-Wisconsin border in 1818, and one major city nearly became Wisconsin’s instead of Illinois’. Which city?
Some Illinois custard stands even work a shot of malt into the mix, chasing that same Wisconsin richness without ever crediting the state that started it.
Order the biggest size on the menu, and you'll need a fistful of napkins at either counter.
9 Illinois Foods That Horrify the Rest of the Country
Ask a Chicago hot dog vendor for a squirt of ketchup, and watch the reaction that follows.
That's just the opening item on a list of Illinois plates piled high enough to make first-timers pause before they dig in.
