The Barrington Hills Observer

Scott Stantis for the Chicago tribune

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD | Chicago Tribune

A recent report from Moody’s Analytics on the economic state of Chicago and Illinois is sobering and should give pause to progressive politicians determined to find new ways to raise taxes, particularly on the business community.

Chicago and Illinois lag not only the country as a whole but, worryingly, even most of the Midwest. Chicago’s economy “is showing signs of fatigue,” according to the report last month, which was commissioned by the state’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

Employment growth lags the country and the region. Since the last quarter of 2019, right before the pandemic struck, Illinois’ nonfarm jobs are up just 0.4% compared with 1.1% in the Midwest and 3.9% nationally.

There are a number of other statistics telling the same story.

The private sector job machine is slowing. The job growth that is being produced is coming from public or near-public sectors like government and health care. Business and professional services — high-paying jobs supporting households that are substantial tax contributors — are shrinking.

The economy in Illinois — and Chicago in particular — is nearly stalled. If this were the case everywhere else in the U.S., we could point to broader economic trends as the culprit. But while growth elsewhere in the U.S. has slowed as expected due to higher interest rates, it’s still chugging along at a noticeably faster clip than here in the nation’s third largest urban region. And the flagship of the Midwest.

Why?

Economists will point to different factors, but one that’s impossible to dispute is the heavy tax burden on business. Illinois ranks 45th of the 50 states in terms of the taxes businesses must shoulder, according to the report. Overall, the state’s average business costs are modestly worse than average — the state’s ranking there is 30th. That’s thanks mainly to lower energy costs than in much of the rest of the U.S. And even that advantage is eroding, the report states.

Read on here.