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* The folks at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation are making some bold claims these days. For instance, the Economist reports…
Katelyn Hancock, a spokesperson for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, says her state has been in competition with Illinois 43 times this year to win new investment—and won 40 times.
* CNN…
Already this year, 16 companies moved all or a portion of their operations from Illinois to Indiana, which the IEDC estimates brought the state 1,500 new jobs and more than $305.1 million in investment.
* I asked Gov. Pat Quinn’s spokespeople for a response and they didn’t directly dispute Indiana’s numbers…
Governor Quinn is focused on creating jobs and working hard to make Illinois an even more attractive place to do business not only in the Midwest, but globally. The Governor has an aggressive long-term strategy for bringing quality jobs to Illinois, which includes innovation, exports and foreign investment, business-friendly legislation, and addressing infrastructure needs. And we don’t need to exaggerate our success; the proof is in the numbers.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, from October 2010 to October 2011, Indiana lost 12,400 jobs, a 0.4 percent decline in employment. Illinois added 60,500 jobs in that same time period. Illinois added 30,000 jobs in October, more than any other state. Since January 2010, Illinois has added 108,100 jobs ranking Illinois first in the Midwest in job creation. Illinois is home to 10 companies in the Fortune 100, 19 in the top 250 and 31 in the top 500. Indiana, by contrast, has five in the top 500. While Illinois’ corporate tax rate is at 7 percent, Indiana’s corporate rate is 8.5 percent - 20 percent higher than Illinois).
However, our competition isn’t Indiana, it’s India. The Governor is focused on making sure Illinois remains competitive on a global scale. We’re in a National recession, this is a national issue that every state is facing. The reality is that Midwestern states need to work together more, not less, to market the region to global visitors and business. An approach that focuses on picking off a neighboring state’s business is short-sighted and is a losing strategy for our region.
“Right to work” is not a strategy to achieve economic progress and create jobs.
* An Indiana news story from last month suggests the Hoosiers are prone to exaggeration…
In his zeal to sell Hoosiers on a right-to-work bill, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, appears to be playing fast and loose with the facts about job creation in Indiana.
Several times this week, Bosma has proclaimed Indiana “the envy of the Midwest in our job-creation efforts,” and said if Indiana enacted a right-to-work law it would “remove the last barriers to job creation” and “help the quarter of a million unemployed Hoosiers get back to work.”
But far from being best in the Midwest, data released Tuesday by the U.S. Labor Department shows Indiana is not creating jobs; it’s losing jobs.
From October 2010 to October 2011, Indiana lost 12,400 jobs, a 0.4 percent decline in employment. The only state to do worse was Georgia, a right-to-work state, which lost 27,900 jobs, or 0.9 percent of employment year-to-year.
Each of Indiana’s neighboring states — Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky — all added jobs during that same period, including 60,500 jobs in Illinois and 48,900 jobs in Michigan.
None of those states has a right-to-work law.
* Indiana is so fervent about the idea of wooing CME Group that at least two towns are competing to host the company. Indianapolis is one, suburban Carmel is another…
CME Group appears to be the subject of a Nov. 3 letter from Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard. In it, Brainard offers $150 million in tax incentives, plus free land and expedited permits for an 800,000-square-foot headquarters, and a 425,000-square-foot “data center facility.”
* But despite the fact that the Board of Trade contributed heavily to Gov. Quinn’s campaign last year, Sen. Bill Brady has been an outspoken proponent of its tax cut…
State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, says he believes a tax break deal to help CME Group, Sears and some small businesses can still be done by the end of the year.
The Illinois House overwhelmingly rejected the plan last week after the Senate passed the measure.
“I’ve had some discussions with some folks (in the House) that I’ve asked to step up and be leaders in the Chicago area to try to get this done,” Brady said.
You don’t see that too often in Illinois. So, whatever you think of the CME proposal, kudos to Brady.
* Ohio’s governor, however, continues to tamp down expectations…
Ohio Gov. John Kasich downplayed the state’s chances this morning of attracting Sears to Columbus.
“If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t bet on it,” Kasich said today while appearing at the Ford Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake.
He said it would be difficult to pull Sears away from the Chicago area. He acknowledged that Ohio is in the running, but it would be a long shot.
* Meanwhile, this bit of economic development may not end well…
The La Salle County Board will hold its January meeting at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Ottawa to accommodate those concerned about the plan to build a 315-acre sand mine next to the east entrance of Starved Rock State Park on private property.
*** UPDATE *** I think this post deserves an appropriate music video…
If I ever leave here I hope never to return
If I get that van back, Man, the road I’m gonna burn
Right now my future’s in the hands of the boys down at Firestone
Stuck in Indianapolis feeling all alone
* Related…
* Sears deal getting split?
* Byrne: Holding Illinois hostage over tax breaks
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 1:07 pm
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**So, whatever you think of the CME proposal, kudos to Brady.**
Unless, of course, he thinks that’s he can get CME money for his next gubernatorial bid.
Comment by dave Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 1:12 pm
If Brady’s the Republican Nominee, then Pat Quinn is a two term governor.
Comment by PublicServant Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 1:25 pm
–From October 2010 to October 2011, Indiana lost 12,400 jobs, a 0.4 percent decline in employment. The only state to do worse was Georgia, a right-to-work state, which lost 27,900 jobs, or 0.9 percent of employment year-to-year.
Each of Indiana’s neighboring states — Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky — all added jobs during that same period, including 60,500 jobs in Illinois and 48,900 jobs in Michigan.–
Keep winning, Mitch. You’re a superstar. The man in your mirror said so.
Only small minds see economic development as nothing more than throwing taxpayers money to try and poach other states jobs.
The idea is to make conditions ripe for growth, not just writing checks so you can issue phony press releases on job creation.
Comment by wordslinger63 Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 1:39 pm
Indianapolis
Comment by MrJM Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 1:40 pm
MrJM, I don’t know if you were attempting to do a Vulcan Mind Meld, but check the update and see if I received your message.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 1:49 pm
“Indianapolis is one, suburban Carmel is another…”
Anybody know any guys that work at the Board or the Merc? Their lives revolve around women, sports and booze. You think they’re gonna go live in freakin Carmel, Indiana?
There’s something to be said for attracting talent in Chicago…
Comment by Senator Clay Davis Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 2:06 pm
The Senator hit the nail right on the head. The boys at the board like to play in the Major Leagues not in a bush league town. When Madigan ana Rahm start getting to work game over! These are guys who live in Burr Ridge and the North Shore, Carmel California maybe never Carmel Indiana.
Comment by mokenavince Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 2:30 pm
The Governor has it right that our most important competition for jobs is outside the nation’s borders. But dwindling resources in most envirnments, natural or financial, always seem to engender competition for those resources and not cooperation in keeping or regaining them. At least Indiana seems to have an overall strategy, not “careening from one crisis to another.” What would it take for Illinois and its neighbors to join forces to come up with a comprehensive plan for the Midwest to make the entire region more attractive for business investment and growth? I do not have the answer to that one. Maybe it is not even a germane question, I think it is worth considering.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 2:52 pm
Since we’re on the economy, can these worker’s compensation #’s possibly be right? Seems like a ridiculously high % coming from IL.
From today’s Crain’s piece (IL firms plan to cut 1,400 jobs): “Kirk La Due, Parallel’s executive vice-president, said the closures were due to unfavorable worker compensation laws in Illinois. He said the company, which also has operations in New York and Wisconsin, earned only 35% of its sales in Illinois but incurred 87% of its worker comp costs here.”
Does that WC % make sense? Or is he likely exaggerating?
If correct, it seems legislative action on Worker’s Compensation reform earlier this year might have made a difference in saving those jobs (along with who knows how many others).
Comment by Shock & Awww(e) Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 2:54 pm
===What would it take for Illinois and its neighbors to join forces to come up with a comprehensive plan for the Midwest ===
Indiana already flatly rejected that idea.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 2:55 pm
I agree with most posters that Indiana would be a bad fit for CME and its employees, but if an environment is so poor in one place (and IL’s approach to taxing CMR and CBOE is really antiquated), then I’d expect them to take certain drastic steps. Bottom line is that they’d leave the trading floors and lots of high-paying jobs in Chicago in any case. In other words, the futures and risk industry probably isn’t really going any place any time soon. However, IL can improve the picture by not letting companies place the state in this position in the first place, and vice versa. This needs to start with a sensible corporate tax policy in the state.
Comment by Flip Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:05 pm
===Does that WC % make sense? Or is he likely exaggerating?===
Difficult to tell, but with our screwed up system, I wouldn’t completely doubt it.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:07 pm
Spot on, Mr. Miller!
– MrJM
Comment by MrJM Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:33 pm
The mind meld worked!
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:34 pm
Senator I made that point a few weeks ago that living in wherever wealthy people live in Indiana or ohio (shaker heights?) was not as much fun as living on the north shore and taking the train to wrigley or going to the city to see museums but it was shot down pretty unanimously by commenters on the blog and it sounds like a fair number of you aren’t speaking from just opinion but on working on these issues either as lobbyists, staffers, or corporate folks.
While we’re at it, techcrunch published information on where startups happen. Chicago ranked just ahead of boulder. Why chicago, the third biggest city in the country and one that thinks itself as a global city is below austin is beyond me and an indictment of mr. daley’s tech efforts over the last decade. an interesting read.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/06/crunchbase-reveals-most-new-us-startups-founded-in-silicon-valley-followed-by-new-york-city/
Comment by shore Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:42 pm
Indiana beating out Illinois. That may be true in some cases, but one thing doesn’t change. Indiana is still…Indiana.
Comment by Aldyth Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:45 pm
Just bit off topic, but one of Rich’s news feeds reports that Chrysler is bringing back the Dogde Dart name for an Alfa Romeo derivative to be built in the Belvidere plant.
Good news as far as jobs, but why curse the vehicle with a loser name? Yes, the strategy has worked for cars that people actually liked, e.g, Chargers and Challengers, but who sits around and reminisces about their ‘63 Dart?
Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:45 pm
Make that Dodge Dart.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:47 pm
Rich,
Great Bottle Rockets song. Perfectly fitting for Indie.
Comment by downstate hack Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:54 pm
Don’t thank me, thank MrJM. He deftly planted the idea in my head.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 3:57 pm
Loved the music video. So appropriate.
Comment by Stooges Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 4:04 pm
I just saw on the avclub.com (the Onion’s pop culture related sister site) that apparently they’re moving their operations to Indianapolis.
Forget the CME deal. We’ve already lost as a state if the Onion is jumping ship.
Comment by MKA1985 Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 4:05 pm
===they’re moving their operations to Indianapolis.===
No, they’re opening a new office there.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 4:08 pm
Not quite, MKA1985. AV club is merely distributing their paper in Indy.
See http://www.ibj.com/satirical-newspaper-targets-city-for-expansion/PARAMS/article/31203
Comment by Flip Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 4:11 pm
While we’re on the topic, be sure to check out one of the funnier Onion pieces in recent months (especially the faux promotional video that accompanies it)…
http://www.theonion.com/articles/indianapolis-announces-really-embarrassing-bid-for,26149/
Comment by Flip Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 4:19 pm
For the record, I LOVED my ‘69 Dart — and would still be driving it today if my dear brother hadn’t parked it on its roof.
– MrJM
Comment by MrJM Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 4:57 pm
==The Governor has it right that our most important competition for jobs is outside the nation’s borders.==
I think the folks running Indiana plan to reduce the wages and working conditions so they can be more like India. It’s a plan…
Comment by Pot calling kettle Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 5:58 pm
And Rich falls victim to the Governor’s continued reliance on data that’s mostly unhelpful. Note that he’s using Establishment data, again. Which doesn’t count people. (Indeed, if a person has two or three jobs, he’s counted two or three times, which is then used to compare to the working population as a whole to try to insist the job market is fine.)
Let’s look at the BLS numbers from the Household data, shall we? Let’s even use the Governor’s own timeframe.
Indiana - 34,800 more people employed than a year ago
Illinois - 56,800 fewer people employed than a year ago
What about our other neighbors?
Kentucky - 23,200 more people employed than a year ago
Missouri - 77,400 more people employed than a year ago
Wisconsin - 11,700 more people employed than a year ago
Saying your economy is fine because there are people taking two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet which boost your Establishment numbers is silly. Our employment numbers aren’t pretty.
Indiana’s unemployment rate is nearly two points lower than ours. Indiana has seen greater employment growth than we have in the past year. Trying to hide that with Establishment data that doesn’t reflect the actual employment situation is dishonest.
Comment by Lizard People Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 10:32 pm
Run the data yourself:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.t03.htm
Comment by Lizard People Tuesday, Dec 6, 11 @ 10:35 pm
@Liazard
Lies, damn lies and stats. You added the number of employed people to the difference in the number of people unemployed. You’re counting the same people twice, just like you blasted the governor’s office for doing. Nice try, hypocrite.
Comment by William Wednesday, Dec 7, 11 @ 7:28 am
“While Illinois’ corporate tax rate is at 7 percent, Indiana’s corporate rate is 8.5 percent - 20 percent higher than Illinois.”
This statement from the Governor’s office is a farce. While the official income tax rate is 7%, Illinois adds on another 2.5% in Personal Property Replacement Tax. The effective corporate income tax rate in Illinois is now 9.5%. The fact that we don’t call the PPRT an income tax doesn’t change the fact that it is a tax on income.
Comment by Pelon Wednesday, Dec 7, 11 @ 7:31 am
This is not a problem Illinois has……
Indiana Discovers $300 Million in Tax Revenue
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/12/06/indiana-discovers-300-million-in-tax-revenue/
Illinois wants to give Sears, CME, CBOE etc.. $300+ million in tax breaks EVERY YEAR, that they cant afford.
Comment by Nick Wednesday, Dec 7, 11 @ 7:40 am
The IL Work Comp Commission released a memo yesterday stating that although the work comp reform bill requires the arbitrators to consider AMA guidelines, they don’t really have to. Consideration of AMA guides was a big win for business and insurance companies in the reform bill and it has been dismantled with one brief memo.
If I am IN, I put that memo in every letter to businesses considering leaving IL. The pomp and circumstance with changing the law and firing Arbitrators is just a dog and pony show when in less than 100 days after the effective date of the Act, the Commission says we can ignore the parts we don’t like. So much for cleaning house John Bradley.
Comment by the Patriot Wednesday, Dec 7, 11 @ 8:12 am
I’ve always preferred low-tar Illinois to full-tar, no-filter Indy.
Look, Indiana is a classic, you get what you pay for state. you don’t pay for anything and in return you get nothing.
If that’s what you like, great. But despite the business headlines it’s not like people are flocking to live in Indiana.
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Wednesday, Dec 7, 11 @ 8:49 am
Pelon,
If you’re going to add on the PPRT, then you need to go county by county in Indiana and factor in the Personal Property Tax that is assessed on businesses. We have a PPRT becauase the Illinois business community HATED the annual personal property tax and fully supported the PPRT. During the hearings on the IL tax increase, the business community was testifying in opposition and adding the 2.5 percent in. One of their chiefs was asked if he’d prefer IL do away with that and go back to the annual personal property tax assessment system. No, no, no, no, no — was the answer back.
If you’re going to add in the PPRT then you need to add in the PPT, which is about impossible to do since it is an annual assessment based on your inventory and machinery. That’s why IL businesses like the PPRT — it’s set. no fluctuation.
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Wednesday, Dec 7, 11 @ 8:56 am