By JOHN KASSCHICAGO TRIBUNE |AUG 28, 2020 AT 5:00 AM
Many Illinois business owners — those who provide jobs and tax revenue in a state broken by the politicians — feel that state officials don’t really care about them anymore. They do have a point.
The governor of Illinois and his allies stubbornly push their tax increase they call “fair,” even as businesses lose revenue from the state government’s off-again-on-again coronavirus shutdown of commerce.
You can’t run a business with that kind of tax uncertainty or keep your workers employed. But Illinois business owners know that even with all these issues, there are some state officials who care about them.
Only they’re not from Illinois. They’re from Indiana.
What Is This?
Indiana Commerce Secretary Jim Schellinger meets with Illinois business owners daily and talks to even more into the evening.
“One of the major drivers is that Illinois’ tax situation and that huge debt for the public worker (government) pensions is always cited because these business leaders have no hope,” he said. “They have no hope it’s ever going to improve. Their businesses rely on predictability and stability and that’s what we offer in Indiana. And that’s why they’re coming.”
There is no hope because there is no political will in Illinois to solve its own problems. Illinois Democrats lean hard left now, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker is in control. Democratic political arguments are filtered through the Chicago liberal media prism, and solutions involve more taxes — but no real cuts in government. No true structural change.
Indiana had Gov. Mitch Daniels who swung his budget ax years ago and straightened his state out. He was followed by Mike Pence, the vice president, and current Gov. Eric Holcomb. And what did these three accomplish?
Indiana property taxes are much lower than Illinois. Indiana has little legacy debt. Indiana pays its bills on time: Illinois currently owes more than $6.5 billion in overdue bills. Indiana’s credit rating is Triple-A from the three main rating agencies while Illinois’ credit rating is near junk. In terms of doing business and livability, Indiana ranks at the top of Midwestern states by U.S. News & World Report for long-term stability and affordability.
Schellinger tells me that some 70 businesses recently have moved from Illinois to Indiana, citing stability and lower costs. Business owners don’t worry about political rhetoric. They worry about the numbers. That’s how they feed their families and keep their employees working. Political memes and feelings don’t help them make payroll.
The numbers are the numbers. And Indiana’s numbers are crushing Illinois.
Andy Gross is owner and CEO of Alliance Steel which supplies flat rolled steel coils to manufacturing companies for use in garage shelving, toolboxes, big yellow school buses. His company and its 130 jobs moved from Illinois to Gary. Some 80% of his Illinois workforce retained their jobs, but now many live in Indiana.
“When we first started thinking about leaving Illinois, we talked to state officials, but all we got was soft rhetoric,” Gross told me. “They had no bullets in their gun. There was nobody aggressively trying to keep us in Illinois. It was just soft talk.
“But the people from Indiana presented us solid concepts, backed by written documents, and how it all applied to us, and the knowledge that came from that was immense. That’s what happened.”
Vincent Flaska moved his company, Hoist Lifttruck, from Illinois to East Chicago, a couple of years ago, bringing 500 new jobs to Indiana and tens of millions of dollars in investment. The family business has since been acquired by Toyota Industries North America. But his family still retains other businesses in Illinois, for now.
“We love Bedford Park, but like I said before, with Illinois — and I’m viewing it from a Chicago and Cook County standpoint — there are just too many hands in the honey pot to stay,” Flaska told me.
“People who have the means are leaving Illinois,” Flaska said. “And the state won’t even know, the damage is already done, and they’re gone.”
Before moving Hoist to Indiana, his workman’s compensation insurance was between $2 million and $3 million annually, he said. In Indiana, it costs him $250,000.
“And that was with the same exact coverage for the same employees,” Flaska said. “The only difference was that we were in Indiana, not Illinois. You wonder how that works.”
The trial lawyers don’t run Indiana politics, I told him.
In Illinois, House Speaker Michael Madigan, the Democratic Party political boss, holds the trial lawyers in the palm of his hand. Flaska knows that. He’s in business.
“In Illinois, if you speak up, if you complain how your business is treated by government, there are repercussions. You get visits by inspectors, the Illinois OSHA inspectors, the county inspectors, the Illinois EPA, and on and on,” he said.
The government hammer comes down hard enough and long enough and what happens to the hammered is inevitable. People leave. Taxpayers and business owners. They vote with their feet.
“We say to Illinois people, welcome to Indiana,” Schellinger says. “We’d take a million people tomorrow. We don’t have a state capitol or a major city pulling down the rest of the state. We’ll have jobs for you.”
You listening, Illinois?
Listen to “The Chicago Way” podcast with John Kass and Jeff Carlin — at www.wgnradio.com/category/wgn-plus/thechicagoway.
Twitter @John_KassJohn KassCONTACT
Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass was born on Chicago’s South Side. He is co-host of “The Chicago Way” podcast on WGN plus. He and his wife, Betty, have two sons. He loves politics of all kinds, particularly indictments and Chicago political corruption trials. He also loves fishing and barbecue.
