Illinois Near Last Place in Employment Growth

Tribune:

The state of Illinois is mired in a budget crisis, with a projected shortfall of $4 billion this year and even more in fiscal year 2010. Gov. Pat Quinn thinks the problem is that the tax collector is leaving state residents and businesses with too much money in their pockets. So he proposes a big boost in the tax rate on both personal and corporate income.

It's a classic Illinois solution. And it's a classic Illinois problem. It's all about giving the government a larger slice of the economic pie, instead of enlarging the pie so everyone gets more.

What the people in government in this state forget is that a well-funded public sector depends on a prosperous private sector. Instead, they create an environment in which the private sector is burdened in various ways that suffocate growth—causing the public sector to gasp as well.
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Over the last decade, it says, nonfarm payroll employment in Illinois has risen by a puny 3.6 percent, worse than all but two other states. In the growth of per capita income, Illinois also lags badly, ranking 39th in the country.

As the chart shows, Illinois job growth has lagged behind the U.S. as a whole with dreary consistency.

It's hard to find much in government policy here that is geared to attracting sound companies with bright futures. We have a larger-than-average property tax load, a liability system heavily weighted toward plaintiffs, a thoroughly pro-union climate and one of the nation's highest minimum wages.
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It's no wonder, then, that businesses with alternatives head for more inviting places. Far more people are moving out of this state than in. On overall economic performance, Illinois ranks a dismal 48th, ahead of only Ohio and Michigan.

And things aren't looking up: In economic outlook, we're 44th. Does anyone think the big state tax increase Quinn wants is going to brighten that forecast?

Via Newsalert!