-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/5353RENMDVFFRIZLGMQZABFYYQ.JPG)
John Atkinson and Dan Seals of Intersect Illinois, a statewide economic development organization: "In fact, 382 companies relocated or expanded in Illinois in fiscal year 2023; that’s an average of more than one company every single day...Momentum is on our side, which is reflected in the 61% of Illinois’ small and midsize business owners who reported feeling optimistic about business in the region, according to a JPMorgan Chase survey — a figure that is notably higher than the 46% nationwide average."
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
Boy. Rich Miller sure writes under a lot of aliases.
It’s amazing what you can accomplish with taxpayer-funded incentives.
Considering Illinois’ GDP and massive size, it’s hard to tell if this is good without knowing how other states fared. The Intersect Illinois report doesn’t offer much in details.
208 companies relocated or expanded in Indiana in 2023. And the capital investment in Indiana was over 4 times greater than Illinois ($29B vs $7B). Considering Indiana’s GDP is less than half of Illinois, did Indiana outperform Illinois?
I would like to add that it would also be interesting to see how much was caused by actual business expansion as opposed to assorted governmental incentive spending. A good example will be Pritzker’s Build Illinois bond program designed to throw money everywhere and sure to cause business expansion in unnecessary areas but at the same time create an even greater eventual hardship as the bond principal and interest are paid back. Once again, it is all about headlines.
Seems to be a disconnect with the reported employment rate. Can someone fill in the gap for me?
Yes, businesses usually move to states that are stagnating at best, or losing population in reality.
Atkinson & Seals are a couple of the GOOD carnival barkers!!
A cherry-picking article. For instance, they say Illinois ranks #5 in pre-K to grade 12 education. That indeed is USNWR’s published ranking (I haven’t tried to explore their method), and Illinois seems to rank much lower on everything else. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/illinois
Don’t forget that IL’s schools – which are mostly the Chicago area’s schools – are unique because we have small, segregated school districts that rely heavily on local property taxes. So we have these really good school districts* (New Trier, Stevenson, etc) that bring up our average school districts, whereas most states have larger, less segregated school districts. Top performing students in most school districts around the country tend to perform the same, but we have a lot of school districts full of top performing students, if that makes sense. * I know there’s the conversations that kids can’t read… Read more »