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Maybe some good news, but definitely some bad news

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Illinois

* I have no doubt that eventually Indiana, Wisconsin, New Jersey or some other state will lure away a large Illinois business. Some states are putting on a full-court press, so I just can’t see how Illinois can convince all of those companies to stay put. But, I suppose we can savor the occasional victory while we can, if it is indeed a victory…

Under siege by New Jersey’s attempts to lure businesses from Illinois and bruised by the Chicago Bears’ loss to the Green Bay Packers, Gov. Pat Quinn went on the offensive and reeled in a maker of high-speed passenger trains that had set up shop in Wisconsin, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday.

“The governor (of Illinois) just was able to attract Talgo, which is a train manufacturing company from Wisconsin, to come to Illinois to manufacture train sets, which is quite a coup,” LaHood said in Washington.

Asked for details, federal and state officials hedged their answers while not quite retracting what LaHood said.

“There is no agreement, to our knowledge,'’ said a U.S. Department of Transportation spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity. “To the best of our knowledge, they are still working on it.'’

* Wisconsin has a tiny wind power base, so even if we do take one of these away, it probably won’t be huge…

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s revival of the state’s former “Escape to Wisconsin” slogan to invite businesses to escape rising taxes in Illinois has led to some blowback from south of the border.

In response to Walker’s wind energy regulations proposed Jan. 11, the Illinois Wind Energy Association is inviting wind power developers to “Escape to Illinois.”

Walker’s proposed legislation would require wind turbines to be constructed with a 1,800-foot setback from neighboring property lines, a mandate IWEA’s executive director Kevin Borgia said “would effectively ban wind development from the Badger State,” in a press release.

* And, now, the bad news…

Kmart is among seven companies that have warned the state this month that they are planning closings or mass layoffs. Kmarts in Franklin Park, Ill., and Washington, Ill., will close, the company said, putting 144 employees out of work.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Opportunity requires employers to provide 60 days notice of plant closures or mass layoffs. The law applies to businesses with 75 or more full-time workers.

Gold Standard Baking, Inc. will close a commercial bakery at 250 N. Washtenaw Ave. in Chicago, cutting 73 jobs by the end of March. 67 workers are expected to be laid off by the end of February at Itasca-based C. D. Listening Bar Inc., which sells DVDs, CDs, books and video games online at DeepDiscount.com.

AGI North America, LLC, a paperboard box manufacturing company in Jacksonville, is closing at the end of March, putting 70 employees out of work. Gray Interplant Systems, Inc. – a warehousing and storage company in Peoria and Mossville – is planning mass layoffs for the first two weeks in April, affecting 167 workers. And Doumak, which manufactures chocolate confectionaries in Bensenville, is planning temporary layoffs affecting 60 workers while new equipment is installed at the facility in March.

Gov. Quinn is right to boast about the numbers of jobs created here in the past couple of years. But he rarely talks about the mind-boggling number of jobs lost here since the start of the recession.

* Related…

* Daley, airline chiefs fail to agree on O’Hare - High-level Washington meeting ends without a deal

* Daley to return to China: A mayoral spokesperson says Daley will meet with business leaders interested in making public and private investments in Chicago. He also hopes to help local companies interested in the fast growing Chinese marketplace. This would be Daley’s fifth trip to China in recent years.

* Tenaska still weighing whether to try again on Taylorville plant

* Casinos might appeal cash-sharing case to Supreme Court

* Press Release: Governor Quinn Announces Manufacturing Company to Expand in Illinois - State Incentive Package Allows Elmhurst-Based The Chamberlain Group to Create Up to 100 New Jobs

* Experts: New Mitsubishi model strong contender

* Navistar disputes job-loss claim

* VIDEO: Unemployment Crisis Brings a Rise in Lies

* CBOE beats estimates with 45% profit jump

* Littlefuse beats estimates in 4th quarter

* Allstate’s 4Q hit hard by hail losses

* Chicago To Get 280 EV Charging Vehicles

* Killing State Street’s Character, one storefront at a time.

* Illinois state senator meeting with Anheuser-Busch over craft brewery bill

* Luciano: Debate over Big Al’s a tempest in a D cup

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 7:39 am

Comments

Unfortunately, the high speed rail projects are a boondoggle and will eventually be defunded. Then I doubt the company will produce very many trains.

Comment by wizard Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 7:53 am
Nice talking points, wizard. Did you come up with those all by your little self?

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 8:00 am
Priorities? The RTA Capital Asset Condition report issued this summer showed a ten year need of $24.6 billion for repair and normal replacement. Not one dime of that for expansion. Expected state and federal funding is less than half what is needed. The regional transit system metrics are in the millions of riders monthly. HSR would carry less than 100 k monthly. Let’s support what we have and what works. While wizrd was not detailed He is right HSR is a boondoggle and HSR diverts needed capital improvements from proven programs.

Comment by Mannix Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 8:26 am
Thank you for calling out the governor. His jobs math during the campaign put the fuzzy in fuzzy math. One union plant hiring 300 shift workers coming to Illinois every 3 months is a joke.

Comment by shore Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 8:33 am
The Jacksonvill plant is a victim of changing technolgy. The main record and CD plant left years ago. Please monitor this list for us though

Comment by western illinois Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 8:36 am
The article about the new EV charging stations reminded me of this Chicago story from last week: http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2011/02/a-rat-ate-my-chevy-volt.html

Comment by yinn Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 8:43 am
The recession started 9/12/2001.

We fell off the cliff with the election of Blago (2002 & 2006)

Exacerbated by the current downturn beginning in 2008.

When do we stop calling it a recession and begin calling it what it truly is…a Depression!!

Comment by BIG R. PH Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 8:55 am
So in exchange for $810 Million in taxpayer money sworn off by Wisconsin, Illinois gets 125 jobs from Talgo. That’s only $648,000 per job. What a deal!

We could probably create more jobs by taking the $810 Million in one dollar bills and burning them.

JBP

Comment by JP Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 9:23 am
JP, that made no sense at all.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 9:24 am
Like Texas under Bush, Illinois is a national target for the opposing party. Anything done here while Obama is in office will get spun. After the national midterms, we have a huge new group of politicians who differ from us.

Texas got the last laugh when they picked up a big majority of the jobs and congressional seats. They proved their bashers were wrong. We must do the same.

I want us to succeed. But we will get bashed too.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 9:25 am
That was me. I have a new phone.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 9:27 am
$810,000,000 divided by 125 = $648,000

The $810 Million is the stimulus that Wisconsin swears off.

Talgo has or had 125 employees in Wisconsin.

JP

Comment by JP Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 9:30 am
It still doesn’t make sense. What are you trying to say? And why not include all the jobs that would’ve been created or preserved by that stim spending?

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 9:34 am
JP - While your grade school math skills are impressive, your comment still doesn’t make sense.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 9:36 am
While I favor high speed rail I don’t believe it will survive funding cuts. Hopefully only federal money is being used in Illinois. It’s a great idea but just to expensive right now.

Comment by Fed up Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 9:38 am
The mistake Quinn and many other people make is thinking that Illinois is only competing with surrounding states for jobs and businesses. We live in a global economy now, and businesses can locate just about anywhere.

Comment by Angry Republican Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 9:53 am
- The mistake Quinn and many other people make is thinking that Illinois is only competing with surrounding states for jobs and businesses. -

I think you mean that’s the mistake Christie, Walker, and Daniels are making. Also, I’m pretty sure Mitsubishi wasn’t founded by the folks that floated over on the Mayflower.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 10:01 am
The state sweepstakes are really a sideshow in the global economy. You’ll always have a handful of wins and losses.

The state should stick to its real business — education, infrastructure, public safety — for long-term economic opportunity.

Texas certainly grew in the last 10 years, to a large extent by turning its head at the flood of undocumented cheap labor coming in across the Rio Grande. There are benefits to that, of course, but costs as well, and the results haven’t made everyone happy.

http://www.americanindependent.com/168880/report-undocumented-population-up-in-texas-steady-in-u-s

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 10:12 am
None of the layoffs discussed hold a candle to the 1,000+ jobs lost in Lake County at Abbott Laboratories a few weeks ago. The jobs lost were for highly educated, compensated employees who will have no alternative but to leave the state to pursue employment in their fields.

Bye bye tax revenue.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 11:58 am
==Bye bye tax revenue==

And, this is where the horrible housing market issues conflate with the horrible job loss issues, to make thngs even worse. Who are these Abbott people going to sell their houses to, even if some of those let go are fortunate enough to find employment in their field elsewhere? Too much housing stock. Not enough jobs. Loss of population. Less tax revenue. Northern Lake County is in for a world of hurt.

Comment by Responsa Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 1:34 pm
Responsa, that’s kind of the point. What does state government have to do with the give and take in Abbott Lab’s business history? The idea that state government is greatly influential in the decisions of global corporations is goofy.

Abbott located there because the private powers that be liked the location for themselves and their employee base. They’re going to have some ups and downs regardless of state government.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 2:23 pm
==What does state government have to do with the give and take in Abbott Lab’s business history?==

Uh, I don’t know, Word. My 1:34 comment was connected to Rich’s last point in this thread outlining the mind boggling job losses Quinn does not like to talk about. And that the job losses continue apace in 2011 even as economists say we are already out of recession. To the extent you thought I was trying to make another different point, I really was not.

Comment by Responsa Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 2:55 pm
=== Gov. Quinn is right to boast about the numbers of jobs created here in the past couple of years. But he rarely talks about the mind-boggling number of jobs lost here since the start of the recession. ===

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Pat Quinn has only been governor for two years, correct?

On that point though, from 2003 to 2005, the Illinois Manufacturers Association and Illinois Chamber of Commerce’s talking points included the line:

“Illinois has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs over the last five years”

While taking swipes at Rod Blagojevich.

Putting me in the very awkward and rare position of defending Blagojevich by pointing out that 160,000 of those manufacturing jobs were lost while George Ryan was governor.

Quinn should be touting Illinois’ job creation numbers, and he is forced to by the tripe coming from the business community and Republicans that Illinois is somehow hostile to business.

AND by a lazy media who figures that if the founder of Jimmy John’s says so, it must be true.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 6:07 pm
Speaking of job losses, let’s not forget that about 50,000 of those lost jobs have been attributed to cuts in state spending and the failure of state government to pay its bills on time.

Another point that’s lost on Big Business and the Republican Party, who seem to champion our state’s standing as #1 Deadbeat.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 6:10 pm
@wordslinger -

I can’t remember the last time you and I agreed, but well said.

The #1 criteria businesses look at when trying to decide where to locate is the education level and job skills of the work force.

We’d be much better off ensuring we have the smartest, best trained work force in the world than engaging in a race-to-the-bottom to see who can offer the biggest tax breaks at the expense of our greatest resource: our people.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Feb 10, 11 @ 6:13 pm