Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, in 2014. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
At the end of this week, moving vans will block Chicago’s alleys and all of those college hunks, man-with-a vans and two guys with trucks will find themselves gainfully employed. Chicago is a huge city. People come and go, each and every day. They take a job out East, hanker for the mountains or maybe, bones wearying and climate change rationalized, they head to warmer places.
But the voluntary exit of one individual, Ken Griffin, has sucked up more attention in recent days than anyone we can remember.
There are two reasons. One is that Griffin, founder of Citadel, is extraordinarily wealthy ($25 billion says Forbes), so much so that his fortune greatly exceeds that of our billionaire governor. His departure has a meaningful impact on the amount of money Illinois collects each year in taxes.
At some $200 million, Griffin’s personal tax bill is more than 1% of the total revenue Illinois draws from income taxes. When you think Illinois has a population of close to 13 million, that’s a remarkable impact and indicative of Griffin’s extraordinary financial success.
The other reason is that Griffin, with whom we met last month, has been using his potential departure as a bargaining chip to urge reform of the things he believes are very wrong with Illinois. His primary concern, as articulated in numerous forums, is the rise in violent crime and its impact on the quality of life for residents and also its detrimental impact on hiring people at places such as Citadel, which must compete for talent in the global marketplace.
To put it mildly, Griffin believes that the state’s leadership, especially Gov. J.B. Pritzker, is inattentive to these issues which Griffin sees as raging so far out of control as to undermine the city he loves.
Read more of the Chicago Tribune editorial here.
Related: “Citadel 3rd major company to leave Illinois in 2 months”
I really hope JB will not be re-elected.