They got tax cuts

[Guns Guns Guns]

Sears rattled Illinois officials Tuesday when it announced, less than two weeks after getting state tax breaks worth $150 million, that it planned to close more than 100 Sears and Kmart stores.


"We gave them a beautiful incentive package," Silverstein said. "They put a lot of pressure on us to do this package because they wanted to stay in Illinois, and I think there's some explaining that has to be done by Sears."


The deal also extends a special taxing district, reducing the Hoffman Estate-based company's local property tax bill for another 15 years by an estimated $125 million for the period.


The retailer would not qualify for state tax breaks unless it met employment and investment requirements. The legislation, for instance, requires the retailer to retain 4,250 jobs at its headquarters, now the site for 6,100 workers.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-1228-sears-sidebar-20111228,0,5570545.story

 

[SmarterthanYou]

lol at state and local governments bowing down to corporations, then screwing the population.

 

[RockX]

Top 10 Companies Eyeing to Exit Illinois

Published on December 26, 2011
Chicago, Dec. 8, 2011 — /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — Chicago’s futures exhange CME Group joined a growing list of companies threatening to leave Illinois as a result of the state’s corporate tax increase earlier this year. Illinois pushed ahead with the 45 percent corporate tax increase in January to address one of the biggest budget shortfalls of any state in the U.S. Since then, both small and large businesses have threatened to leave. Some large businesses have received incentives or temporary reprieves to stay put, but small busineses with no clout of leverage as well as taxpayers will pay the full price of the seriously misguided policies of Democratic Governers Pat Quinn and Jerry Brown. These are the top 10 Companies threatening to leave Illinois:


1. CBOE – Chicago Board Options Exchange
2. CME Group – Terry Duff, executive Chairman of the world’s biggest futures exchange, said on Wednesday it might move somewhere else.
3. Sears – Struggling retailer has called Chicago home since 1887 – but is now in negotiations with officials from other states to relocate.
4. Motorola Mobility – Google owned Motorola Mobility is also considering to leave, prompting Pat Quinn to put up more than $100 million in incentives to persuade the Libertyville-based smartphone company to reconsider its move.
5. Caterpillar – Doug Oberhelman, the chief executive of Peoria-based Caterpillar, wrote a letter to Gov. Quinn raising his concerns that ”The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business,” Oberhelman wrote. The heavy equipment giant has agreed to stay put for the time being.
6. Navistar – Pat Quinn struck the second biggest incentive package of $64.7 million to keep Navistar in Illinois.
7. Mitsubishi – Mitsubishi Motors North America received $29 million in state tax breaks in February 2011. The incentives were given to the automaker after it announced plans to phase out several existing car models as part of global restructuring.
8. US Cellular – Chicago-based cell phone provider U.S. Cellular a $7.1 million tax credit package in October of 2010 so that it would stay in the state. In exchange, the company promised to create 25 new jobs and retain nearly 1,100 others at its Illinois facilities.
9. Jimmy John’s – the founder of the sandwich franchise company said in January of 2011 that he was considering moving his company’s headquarters from Champaign, Ill. to Florida because of the corporate tax increase. Jimmy John’s Champaign headquarters employs 100 people, while the chain has more than 1,000 franchise shops in the country. To date, Jimmy John’s has not received incentives from the state.
10. Continental Tire - Continental promised to retain 2,750 employees in Mount Vernon in exchange for a $19 million tax break in May of 2011 that Illinois said would be spread over 15 years.
FDR’s Folly, authored by Jim Powell, showed that tax hikes to address the record state deficit is not a new strategy. This knee jerk reaction by politicians failed miserably when trialled during the Great Depression in 1930s. Theatening the growth of the engine of growth by punishing the private sector will result in a vicious spiral that is counter productive.