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* This Crain’s piece doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story about why the US Chamber ranks Illinois so low…
Pro-union labor laws and policies are the only thing standing between Illinois and the creation of about 44,000 more jobs and almost 3,000 new businesses, according to a 50-state study issued Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
* Here are a few of the actual reasons for our low ranking. From the Chamber’s list…
* Wide-ranging state employment discrimination laws beyond federal requirements
* Significant restrictions on employer inquiries into applicant or employee history
* Not a right-to-work state
Those “wide-ranging” anti-discrimination laws above and beyond federal laws include sexual orientation protections. The “significant restrictions” on employer inquiries include worker credit histories. And, yes, we’re not a right-to-work state. That idea was even dropped by Indiana’s conservative Republican legislature the other day.
* It’s obvious that unions are a big reason for the US Chamber’s displeasure…
The large [Illinois] union presence is a major influence on the development of state labor and employment policy. State law provides a host of protections and benefits for union members. The state provides unemployment benefits to striking workers, and there are state laws permitting picketing in public rights-of-way and a requirement for an employer’s hiring advertisements to specify whether there is an existing strike or lockout.
* What states are their heroes? The Chamber’s “top tier” includes Alabama, with a 9.1 percent unemployment rate, Florida, which has a 12 percent unemployment rate, and Georgia, with its 10.4 percent unemployment rate. All of those rates are higher than ours. Others on their favorable list had lower unemployment rates, including Mississippi, Texas, Idaho and Kansas. Only Texas has a somewhat comparable economy to ours, but it also has rich oil and natural gas deposits, and that sector is booming right now.
* So, does this study have anything to do with reality? After all, Site Selection magazine measures real world behavior, not ideology-based projections. It put Illinois in its top ten and ranked the Chicago metro region as number one.
Back to the Crain’s story…
“We’re not pretending these are the only factors,” said Glenn Spencer, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based chamber’s Workforce Freedom Initiative, noting that companies also looked at taxes, infrastructure, education and other variables when they decided where to invest. But the point of the study was to isolate the impact of labor laws and regulations, he said.
* Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. We have a very high number of labor and employment lawsuits here - about the same as Florida, which was one of the Chamber’s “top tier” states. And then there’s stuff like this…
Two Internet-based marketers Thursday urged Gov. Pat Quinn to veto a bill aimed at collecting state sales tax on website purchases and threatened to leave the state if Quinn did not.
“I spent the last 12 years of my life creating jobs,” said Tim Storm, chief executive officer of FatWallet.com, which employs 52 people. “I’m not asking for anything of Illinois but a veto.”
Storm’s website displays discounts from online merchants, such as Amazon.com or Overstock.com. He receives a commission when customers purchase from those sites.
The legislation would force Internet retailers to collect Illinois’ 6.25 percent sales tax on all purchases made in the state. Illinoisans are already required to pay that tax, but it is up to them to declare it.
* And, of course, our workers’ compensation premiums are outrageously high. The “reform” effort five years ago, which was agreed to by the business lobby, has failed miserably. It needs to be revisited. Gov. Pat Quinn said this week that he’s working on a fix, but nobody knows yet what it will be or if it can pass. But the very real problem of workers’ comp premiums is barely mentioned by the Chamber. Instead, the Chamber’s analysis is almost all about the unions.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 3:24 am
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* What states are their heroes?…Alabama….Florida…Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Idaho,….”
We believe these also allow you to marry your cousins, pile your appliances in the front yard and mandate neck tatoos too. Perhaps that is part of the fondness factor?
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 6:36 am
The chamber has been and will be a lobby for its own Big Corporate agenda, not the needs or wants of small business owners, let alone workers, or (this is ghastly) the American people.
Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 8:01 am
Yet another story confirming the US Chamber of Commerce is a tool. I rank them last on my list of entities whose rankings I pay attention to.
Comment by PublicServant Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 8:20 am
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has nothing to do with Main Street America. The chamber is the biggest supporter of undocumented workers in the country. They’d only be happy if every worker had no rights.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 8:39 am
A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a Chamber of Commerce member are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The Chamber member reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the Tea-Partier and says,”Watch out for that union guy; he wants a piece of your cookie.”
Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 8:59 am
What? No tea at the party?
Comment by PublicServant Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 9:45 am
A union member, a US Chamber member and a small business owner are sitting around a table. The union member and the Chamber member, both relatively corpulent, are arguing over the plate of cookies for several minutes. The small business owner tries to enter the conversation over the dividing of the cookies but the other two look over and tell him shut up and go away.
Comment by Bitterman Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 10:00 am
Whether we like it our not the Chamber is a respected organization with business people. We, in Illinois, can simply try to degrade what is reported and recognize our weaknesses and do something about it. We have got big issues that need to be addressed.
Comment by Truth Seeker Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 10:09 am
- Whether we like it our not the Chamber is a respected organization with business people. -
Yeah, I’m sure a bunch of young startups are going to flock to Alabama because the chamber ranks them top tier. The chamber is a lobbying group, not a respected authority on location.
Comment by Small Town Liberal Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 10:15 am
I’m not a union fan at all, but it sure seems like unions are being scapegoated for a lot of things at the moment.
Comment by Excessively Rabid Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 10:29 am
As a state employee, I am wondering: Where were all the complaining taxpayers 22 years ago when I started here making $16,000? Even in 1989 that was below poverty level! So now that I finally have a salary that allows me to live decently, you want me to apologize and give it up?? NO WAY! I am proud to be union and have earned every “cadillac perk” that the stae “gives” me.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 10:34 am
Wow circular firing squad. Way to throw out stereotypes not borne out by facts. Liberals love to use stereotypes but if someone were to say something about the morals and upkeep of the south and westside of Chicago that would be wrong.
Comment by Fed up Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 11:04 am
“Yeah, I’m sure a bunch of young startups are going to flock to Alabama because the chamber ranks them top tier”
You are correct - as far as you’ve gone. Unfortunately, that’s not very far. Illinois should be a great location (literally, a top 10 location) for small tech startups. We’re not - with all our advantages, and we have many - we’re still probably below average among all the states.
In the small startup biz, it’s not unions that are the primary issue. It’s more the entire government structure that’s the issue - It’s all the little things.
Try being a small 3-4 person startup here in IL and running up against the IDES the first time and figuring out that clown show. They seem to treat most tech startups like we are manufacturing facilities, so rates for startups are high.
IMO, Illinois just isn’t a particularly friendly place for small startups to grow and prosper.
Comment by Judgment Day Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 11:23 am
What do alabama, mississippi, georgia, texas, and the other favored states have in common?
Low wages. Poor education. Poor government services. Lax environmental regulation. Cheap land. And a long history of desperation for some kind of development - any kind of development really. (There are areas of Texas, Florida, and Georgia that don’t suffer too much for development, but there are huge swathes of those states that got nuttin)
They’re like third world countries. There should be a name for them. Third world states doesn’t sound quite right, so maybe “developing states” fits.
What’s the difference between Vietnam and Mississippi? Mississippi’s closer.
The Chamber of Commerce wants the entire country to be governed like Mississippi. A state that ranks at or close to the bottom in just about any category related to quality of life - education, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, per capita income, so on and so forth.
The neo-liberal race to the bottom. Eventually, there is a push back against the race to the bottom. Just look at Egypt and Tunisia.
To the chamber, good business states are the ones that keep their workers in grinding poverty, toiling under a thick layer of smog, drinking polluted water, and surviving off of buying things from the company store (on credit, and they’ll never earn enough to repay it).
Sorry…rant over.
Comment by jerry 101 Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 11:33 am
Alternate answer: http://www.iancfriedman.com/?p=284
– MrJM
Comment by MrJM Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 12:46 pm
The US Chamber of Commerce would like to see unions disappear, OSHA vanish, DOL slip into the Twilight Zone, and anything resembling worker’s rights go defunct. Rather sounds like a third world country, doesn’t it?
Comment by Aldyth Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 2:03 pm
All I know is that my father-in-law just moved to Florida and took his wealth with him. He’s saving millions in income and estate taxes that the Illinois pols will now never get a hands on! It seems half of his neighbors are also from Illinois.
Comment by formerpolitico Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 2:39 pm
formerpolitico, Florida has no income tax. Should Illinois really abolish its income tax? How would we afford to build the warming dome?
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 2:40 pm
Former Politico, people retiring to Florida? I’ve never heard such a thing. When did this start?
Virtually the whole Gulf Coast from Ft. Meyers to Naples are Illinois snowbirds. They made their fortunes and raised their families here and live the good life in the sun.
New Yorkers got Miami. It started about the same time as home air-conditioning.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 2:47 pm
=== Unfortunately, that’s not very far. Illinois should be a great location (literally, a top 10 location) for small tech startups. We’re not - with all our advantages, and we have many - we’re still probably below average among all the states. ===
LOL. Tell that to Groupon.
According to Site Selection Magazine, Illinois’ ranks 15th in New Economy jobs. Our advantages come from world-class higher learning institutions, great public research facilities like Argonne and Fermi, the Beckman Institute in Champaign; a highly-skilled workforce; and great places to live.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 3:21 pm
As some have pointed out, different surveys look at different measurable criteria. It shouldn’t be all that surprising that the US Chamber would differ widely with Site Selection when you look at what they considered. That said, there is vast room for improvement if Illinois is to stay competitive with other states in a number of areas - Work Comp, Med Mal, tort reform, education funding to name just a few. Right now, we’re not a healthy environment, and this week’s proposal to strip business tax credits and incentives would have added additional strain on our economic development efforts. Amidst all these surveys, somewhere in the middle lays the absolute truth. While it’s fun to bash this survey or that survey, we should try to learn something of value from each.
Comment by Commonsense in Illinois Friday, Mar 4, 11 @ 4:34 pm