Illinois continues to give businesses reasons to leave

If a car company found out that 30 percent of its customers thought about a buying a car from a different car company within 12 months of their purchase – that car company would be understandably worried.

No business wants to lose a third of its customers every year.

Here in Illinois, a new survey from Cole Taylor Bank reveals that 30 percent of Chicago area mid-size businesses considered moving to another state in the last 12 months. Most of the businesses thinking about leaving were manufacturers with anywhere from $10-25 million in annual sales.

According to the survey, 80 percent of the respondents rated Illinois’ economy as poor and gave the Chicago economy a slightly worse rating than the overall US economy.

Illinois’ unemployment rate is 9.1 percent – higher than all surrounding states. The combination of the state’s tax increases, excessive state spending and lack of legal reform continue to drive jobs and opportunities to other states.

Illinois is ranked 45th out of 50 states for legal fairness. Should it really be a surprise that 30 percent of mid-size companies want to relocate to another state? States such as Wisconsin and Minnesota have taken dramatic steps to improve their legal climate but here in Illinois legislative leaders refuse to even allow lawsuit reform legislation to come up for a vote.

If legislative leaders continue in their failure to create a better environment for job growth and job creation – then we run the risk of seeing those companies thinking of leaving begin the process of actually leaving. Illinois needs jobs – not more lawsuits.