Trickle of Companies Leaving Illinois Turning Into a Flood

[Chosen Daughter]

Friday, 14 August 2015   
Trickle of Companies Leaving Illinois Turning Into a Flood
 Written by  Bob Adelmann 
 
Trickle of Companies Leaving Illinois Turning Into a Flood   
 


For Marty Flaska, president and CEO of Hoist Liftruck, it was the deciding factor in his company’s decision to move:

I love this city [Bedford Park], but if we can keep an extra $2 million per year in our family business by moving 15 miles away, why wouldn’t we?

Chief Executive Magazine’s “2014 Best and Worst States for Business” report ranked Illinois 48th out of 50, with many CEOs venting their opinions on why. Wrote one:

Corruption and union pensions have made Illinois a poor alternative for business. Continually avoiding [addressing and fixing] the problems have only exacerbated the situation. More conservative states are easier to work in and with.

Said another:

Illinois is rated in the worst category; their taxing scheme is deleterious toward small business … The Illinois House assembly is inept in addressing the hard issues.… They are a taxing and spending machine with little regard to the consequences and impacts to its citizens and businesses.

 A third put it this way:

Illinois is a horrendous state in which to do business. It is governed by a class of incompetent, corrupt politicians. It’s like doing business in a third-world country.

And then there’s the matter of property taxes, which are the second-highest in the United States, with indications that the pols in Springfield will raise them again.

Finally, there’s Michael Madigan, the virtual overlord of Illinois politics. Speaker of the Illinois House and chairman of the state’s Democratic Party, he is the longest-serving speaker in state history and is referred to as the “Velvet Hammer — a.k.a. the Real Governor of Illinois.” His control style caused Rich Miller, editor of a political newsletter, to claim: “The pile of political corpses outside Madigan’s Statehouse door of those who tried to beat him one way or another is a mile high and a mile wide.”

He is owned by the AFL-CIO, the Illinois Education Association, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the Chicago Teachers Union, and, of course, the SEIU — the Service Employees International Union — which have been happily and successfully funding his reelection campaigns for years.

He is also, predictably, a founder of Madigan and Getzendanner, a law firm that specializes in corporate real estate property tax appeals.

The combination of intransigence on the part of Madigan to change the status quo, and the immovable Democratic political machine in Springfield, coupled with high property taxes and outrageous workers’ compensation premiums, is impoverishing the middle class. Research from Pew Charitable Trusts shows that since 2000 the percentage of Illinois households that are counted as middle class has shrunk from 50 percent to below 46 percent, the smallest percentage of any state in the Midwest.

Property taxes are so high in Illinois that 34 percent of households in the state spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. As Illinois Policy expressed it, taxes are “like a second mortgage,” averaging $3,939 a year, the second highest in the nation, and only $32 below New Jersey, the country’s worst offender. This is twice that of Missouri homeowners and two-and-a-half times that of Indiana homeowners.

The silence from Springfield over fixing anything is deafening and is likely to remain so until such time as Madigan is ousted and a normal political process can be restored there.Until then, expect the flood of companies and jobs to continue to flow outward from Illinois to more sensible states such as Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Michigan.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/sectors/item/21405-trickle-of-companies-leaving-illinois-turning-into-a-flood

https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-unemployment-rate-5th-highest-of-nations-49-largest-metro-areas/

The effects of Democratic government.

Effects of Democratic government on education

http://mic.com/articles/88559/what-life-is-like-for-kids-in-the-worst-school-in-chicago#.jR4vDiAtv

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/illinois_governor_seeks_control_of_chicago_school_system.html

Democratic government is crippling and the cause of poverty, despair leading to hopelessness.  Gun control can't fix this.

[Free Vulcan]

Saddest part is that outside of the 800 lb gorilla Chicago, and some of the downstate blue collar union towns like Peoria, Illinois is a neon red state. Even the Dems are very conservative in many areas.

[Chosen Daughter]

Saddest part is that outside of the 800 lb gorilla Chicago, and some of the downstate blue collar union towns like Peoria, Illinois is a neon red state. Even the Dems are very conservative in many areas.

And do they have similar problems?  Or do they represent good government, business and schools?  Are they thriving instead of dying?

[Free Vulcan]

And do they have similar problems?  Or do they represent good government, business and schools?  Are they thriving instead of dying?

In terms of govt most downstate jurisdictions seem to stretch their money pretty well and stay out of debt, yet provide a good level of services. The schools seem to be pretty ok in most of those places. Exceptions are the dying blue collar manufacturing towns which are usually little Chicago Dem stinkholes.

On economic activity it just depends where you are at. The ones in the Chicago or St. Louis orbit are probably doing the best, then the Northern third after that. The Central IL corridor between the two has a number of metro areas and a great interstate system that help maintain activity. The east side is fairly rural and agricultural but in general seems to be on the good side of things, being nestled between the St. Louis/Chicago corridor and Indianapolis.

Southern IL is dominated by the Shawnee Nat'l forest, and it is pretty backwoods. Still, they seem to do use what resources they have well. The U-town of Carbondale helps alot. The Mississippi side of the state between St. Louis and the Quad Cities IA is rural, poor, and neglected, and they are also part of a very depressed are that includes SE IA and NE MO. Generally though they also seem to do well with what they have.

I think they'd all be doing better, but Chicago just sucks up so much money and attention that there is quite in imbalance that really hinders particularly the west and southern part of the state.

[Chosen Daughter]

In terms of govt most downstate jurisdictions seem to stretch their money pretty well and stay out of debt, yet provide a good level of services. The schools seem to be pretty ok in most of those places. Exceptions are the dying blue collar manufacturing towns which are usually little Chicago Dem stinkholes.

On economic activity it just depends where you are at. The ones in the Chicago or St. Louis orbit are probably doing the best, then the Northern third after that. The Central IL corridor between the two has a number of metro areas and a great interstate system that help maintain activity. The east side is fairly rural and agricultural but in general seems to be on the good side of things, being nestled between the St. Louis/Chicago corridor and Indianapolis.

Southern IL is dominated by the Shawnee Nat'l forest, and it is pretty backwoods. Still, they seem to do use what resources they have well. The U-town of Carbondale helps alot. The Mississippi side of the state between St. Louis and the Quad Cities IA is rural, poor, and neglected, and they are also part of a very depressed are that includes SE IA and NE MO. Generally though they also seem to do well with what they have.

I think they'd all be doing better, but Chicago just sucks up so much money and attention that there is quite in imbalance that really hinders particularly the west and southern part of the state.

Good information.  Thanks.  Chicago does suck up the attention.  Sad that the state is known by its big city corruption.  Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama.  Hey all of that community organizing sure made an effect didn't it?

[Fishrrman]

Looks like the democrats of Chicago and Springfield are doing the same thing to "downstate" Illinois that the democrats of New York City and Albany have done for their "upstate" -- that is, turning it into an economic wasteland...