The following guest opinion was published in Crain’s Chicago Business’ Forum publication on Monday, May 25:
Full Text:
Few states possess the embedded advantages Illinois does: unmatched road, rail, and river infrastructure, global air transportation, world-class universities, fertile farmland, and one of the nation’s largest economic hubs in Chicago. We sit at the center of America’s economy and have every ingredient necessary to lead the Midwest in growth, innovation, manufacturing, logistics, and investment.
So why does Illinois continue to lag behind neighboring states?
Ensuring our state’s success requires strong and steady leadership from the top. To his credit, Governor JB Pritzker has supported several important economic development initiatives and has demonstrated a willingness to pursue large-scale investment opportunities. Those efforts matter. But Illinois still needs a clearer and more unified long-term growth strategy — one that brings leaders together around the shared goal of making Illinois the economic powerhouse it should be.
We need stronger leadership from the Governor to protect the economic tools that help create jobs and attract investment. Especially as the progressive socialist wing of the Democratic Party continues to push a narrative that economic growth equals corporate greed, we need our Governor to boldly and decisively push back against efforts to eliminate or weaken tools that have helped create thousands of jobs and attract billions in investment.
Consider the Blue Collar Jobs Act of 2019. The law was the product of bipartisan negotiations and a shared recognition that Illinois must modernize its approach to job creation and capital investment. At a time when cooperation is rare in Springfield, it demonstrated that common ground is still possible when the focus is on people and not politics.
Efforts to repeal the Blue Collar Jobs Act, as called for in Senate Bill 3796, would undermine that progress. This Act helps create good-paying construction jobs that help families pay mortgages, put food on the table, and build long-term financial stability. It has sustained thousands of workers across Illinois by encouraging development that keeps skilled tradespeople employed and local economies moving.
The Governor should make preservation of the Blue Collar Jobs Act a central part of his economic agenda and push back against efforts by those within his own party who portray economic growth as inherently negative.
The same is true for data centers. When structured responsibly, these projects bring billions in private investment, create high-quality jobs, expand local tax bases, and can provide meaningful property tax relief to communities. Yet some lawmakers would rather block those opportunities than compete for them.
Illinois must also compete for transformational projects, including the future of the Chicago Bears. A modern stadium and surrounding development would generate billions in investment, create thousands of jobs, expand tourism, and drive long-term economic growth. While Illinois Democrats continue to squabble and fail to produce a coherent plan to keep the team, Indiana has aggressively positioned itself to attract it. Keeping the Bears in Illinois will require the Governor to lead his own party toward a workable plan before the State of Indiana closes the deal.
Illinois cannot afford to move backward. A real economic agenda would focus on growth. It would create jobs, protect job creators from punitive tax increases, expand workforce development, streamline regulations, accelerate infrastructure investment, and aggressively pursue transformative projects that generate long-term prosperity.
Illinois has every advantage necessary to succeed, and Republicans want to be partners in its success. The only question is whether our state’s top leadership is willing to pursue an economic vision bold enough to match this state’s extraordinary potential.
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