Indiana is ranked second for economic growth in a new ‘Rich States/Poor States’ report from the American Legislative Council. Illinois is ranked 44th.
‘’The root of Illinois’ problems are the over-spending, the pension debt, and the taxes,’’ says Jonathan Williams who is one of the co-authors of the report. ‘’Illinois is in the top five in the nation for tax burden, which is something you don’t want to be top five for,’’ says Williams.
State Senator Dale Righter says it is easy to see the difference in the two states. He took a fly-over the region around the Illlinois-Indiana border. ‘’You could see these large manufacturing facilities on the Indiana side, and nothing on the Illinois side,’’ says Righter.
Danville Mayor Scott Eisenhauer says the lack of a state budget and other issues – such as workman’s comp – have impacted efforts to land businesses and industries here. ‘’When somebody comes in they see that the state of Illinois is not as stable as other states around the country. And so where they’re looking to locate – why not just locate in Indiana which tends to have a little more stable economy than Danville which is right on the line. That being said,’’ added Mayor Eisenhauer, ‘’I think we’ve done a great job in bringing economic development to the community. We’ve seen some nice expansions. We’ve got businesses all over the community now looking to employ people. And we’ve had a nice surge of retail and restaurants, which is unlike what’s happening in a lot of cities around the country. So while we have our challenges, there’s a lot of great success stories going on as well,’’ added the Mayor.
