The Illinois office of the National Federation of Independent Business joined other premier business groups today in labeling the spring legislative session as “one of the worst for employers”, citing lawmaker’s apparent “race to the bottom” and litany of anti-employer, anti-job growth measures considered this year.
At a press conference on the final day of session, NFIB, the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and the Illinois Chamber of Commerce joined together lamenting the continuous effort to tax, over-regulate, mandate and constrict employers at every turn by lawmakers in both chambers which has created one of the most crushing business climates in the nation.
While this is not a new phenomenon in Springfield, the massive uptick in these anti-employer measures coupled with the accompanying rhetoric has exasperated an already hostile business climate.
Ironically, many of these measures–in theory–are aimed at increasing pay, hiring more employees or giving workers more certainty, yet they achieve quite the opposite. While the intention of our business community is to provide jobs with competitive pay and generate revenue to fix the state’s problems, the anti-employer narrative is having a chilling effect.
“Our members aren’t surprised by the legislature’s anti-business antics this session, but they are disappointed and fed up,” said NFIB State Director Mark Grant. “Illinois is broke and we haven’t had a budget in two years. We need leaders who are less focused on scoring easy political points and more on enacting good policies that benefit all Illinoisans. We need legislators who will act like adults, set aside their political differences, and make the difficult decisions that would make things better for working families and allow businesses to grow and create jobs.”
“My Democrat friends like to say we are in a race to the bottom. Unfortunately, I’m here to tell you we are winning but that means Illinois businesses and families are losing. The high cost of workers’ compensation is one of the biggest issues facing manufacturers but lawmakers fail to act because they continually side with wealthy trial lawyers. Their failure to act and create an attractive economic climate means that Illinois will continue to bleed jobs and remain a laughingstock of the nation,” said Greg Baise, president and CEO, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.
“Every day seems to bring another report of another round of retail store closings. Instead of talking restraint and recovery for the retail community, the narrative out of Springfield, like the actual actions in Chicago and
Cook County, is higher taxes, labor and regulatory burdens, and, in the case of Cook County, incentivizing theft. This ‘campaign against Main Street retailers’ will only hasten the continued job loss and store closings that have become all too familiar. Retailers have limited responses; reduce employee hours, lay people off, increase automation, or close. Passing legislation to mandate artificially higher wages when the jobs don’t exist doesn’t help anyone,” said Rob Karr, president and CEO, Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
“The ping pong of anti-employer policies coming from both Chicago and Springfield is unsustainable. At every corner, Chicagoland businesses are being asked to pay higher property taxes, soda taxes, and sales taxes while also being forced to implement countless mandates that do not grow the economy. Chicago has so much to offer but this economic death by 1,000 paper cuts does not create the jobs, quality of life and revenue Springfield should be seeking,” said Michael Reever, Vice President of Government Affairs, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
“Time and again lawmakers have suggested policies that shift greater financial burdens to employers statewide. Whether it is during the budget impasse or after it is resolved, standing up against job-crushing legislation is crucial for our economy. Increasing minimum wage, passing “fake” workers’ compensation reform and proposing a significant arbitrary tax increase is far from the progress Illinois deserves. We need pro-growth economic policies to prevent the steady decline of Illinois’ economic competitiveness. And we need them now, that is, if we want to continue to attract the best and the brightest individuals to Illinois,” said Todd Maisch, President and CEO, Illinois Chamber of Commerce
Springfield’s Dirty Dozen
- SB 81: Legislation that raises the minimum wage to $15
- HB 2771: A costly government mandate forcing employers regardless of size to provide paid leave to every employee regardless of hours worked.
- HB 160: A $5,000 fee on every employer for the “privilege” of doing business in Illinois
- HB 156: Massive property tax shift onto commercial and industrial taxpayers
- SB 1502: Trial lawyer supported legislation that burdens every e-commerce business, and every company with a credit card, loyalty program app or website, without providing any consumer protections
- HB 3449: Trial lawyer supported legislation that unfairly targets companies that share or store location data and requires e-commerce businesses to ask for permission before collecting location data from your device
- HB 3538: Penalizes business that move even one job out of state while discouraging future investment
- HB 2802: Government mandate forcing businesses to pay the transportation costs of their workers
- HB 2525: This bill codifies “a cause” workers’ compensation standard that mandates insurance rate review without providing any meaningful reform
- HB 2622: Legislation that would disrupt the private workers’ compensation insurance market without having a strong reason to exist
- HB 3337: A bill that allows someone to steal $2,000 of merchandise from a retailer
- SB 9: Imposes $5.4 billion in new taxes on Illinois businesses and families–revenue without reforms
Ignored Reforms of the 2017 Legislative Session
- Pension reform
- Workers’ compensation reform
- Tax reform
- Restraint of local government
- Property tax relief
- Education and workforce development
