In 2011 Doug Oberhelman, then CEO of Caterpillar, wrote a letter to the then Governor. Pat Quinn warns that Illinois trade policies will eventually force companies like his out of Illinois.
“In short, while Caterpillar and most other companies are looking to set up a new plant in the United States, Illinois is not in the running for such projects. It doesn’t have to be that way. … I want to stay here. But as the leader of this company, I must do what’s right for Caterpillar when deciding where to invest,” Oberhelman wrote.
We know the rest of the story. These warnings were ignored and this year Caterpillar announced that the company was moving to Texas. Other companies, including Tyson, Citadel, Boeing, FTX and Highland Ventures, also announced they were leaving Illinois.
It’s simple. Bad policies lead to bad results. For example, our governor shut down the economy during the pandemic. We have lost countless small businesses because of his actions. It’s going to take a long time to recover from its poor decision to close small businesses, as around 14% of the jobs lost due to the closures have yet to come back.
Our state continues to shrink in population. We have lost population for the past eight consecutive years. Illinois lost 113,776 people between July 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021, according to US Census data. For perspective, this is equivalent to losing the entire population of the city of Springfield in the space of a year. Consider that no other state in the Midwest has lost more than 17,000 people during the same period.
We are losing businesses. We are losing people. What are our leaders doing about it?
The answer is, not a thing. They won’t even address the issue.
Democrats and various members of the media love to call my downstate colleagues and I “extremists,” but the truth is, we ran for office because our state’s current leaders couldn’t run a stand. of lemonade, let alone a state the size of Illinois. We pay some of the highest taxes in the country, and all we have to prove are bad roads, failing schools, crumbling state parks, and incompetently run state agencies. Don’t forget all the Democratic senators and state representatives who are accused of bribery — yes, bribery — of the kind we learned about in elementary school.
Our taxes are too high. State energy policies make utilities too high. We have too many business regulations and our workers’ compensation costs are among the highest in the country. We will remain unable to compete with neighboring states as long as we continue to ignore the concerns of the business community. We can solve this problem. We just need the political will to make it happen.
Illinois is located in the center of the country. There is no reason for Illinois to lose business. Bad leadership has created a hostile business environment that the business community has been warning us about for years. If we are to become a destination of jobs and opportunity, we must heed the warnings of job creators and adopt better policies. Doing the same thing we’ve always done will only produce the same failed results and more headlines about company exits.
It’s time for Democrats and Republicans to work together to bring jobs and opportunity back to Illinois, and it can’t happen fast enough.
• State Rep. Chris Miller, R-Robinson, represents the 110th District. He can be reached at www.ilhousegop.org/millercontact.