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Illinois governor responds as states try to poach jobs

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Gov. Pat Quinn has a message for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and other officials trying to lure jobs from Illinois: Back off.

"We don't need some guy from Jersey to tell us how to do things in the Land of Lincoln," Quinn said Tuesday. "This is a guy whose business climate is rated 48th in the nation. That's up from 50th; I'll give him credit for that."

New Jersey's Republican governor has been running newspaper and radio ads in Illinois to try to lure away businesses after Illinois lawmakers decided to raise the corporate income tax. In the ads, Christie urges businesses to relocate to New Jersey.

"Had enough of outrageous tax increases?" asks an ad in The (Springfield) State Journal-Register. "We're committed to fiscal responsibility and lower taxes."

Other states have taken similar shots at Illinois.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, another Republican, criticized the tax increase and urged Illinois businesses to move north. State and local economic development groups in Indiana also plan advertising campaigns.

Quinn, a Democrat, said the states going after Illinois jobs play down the fact that their taxes often are higher even after Illinois' increase. Along with raising the corporate income tax from 4.8 percent to 7 percent, Illinois hiked its personal income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent. Some analyses of Illinois taxes also count a second corporate tax that essentially pushes the Illinois rate to 9.5 percent.

In New Jersey, the corporate rate is 9 percent for businesses with incomes over $100,000. Its personal income tax is 6.37 percent for couples earning more than $150,000 a year and 8.7 percent for those earning more than $500,000 a year.

Wisconsin's personal tax ranges from 4.6 percent to 7.5 percent. Its corporate rate is 7.9 percent.

Those states also can't match Illinois' recent economic record, Quinn said: Illinois saw more new jobs created than any other Midwestern state over the past year. The state has seen nine straight months of declining unemployment.

Companies like Ford and Navistar are expanding in Illinois, Quinn said, and Chinese officials just finished a Chicago visit that could result in more investment from overseas.

"They didn't go to Sheboygan (Wis.). They didn't go to Kokomo (Ind.). They came here to Illinois," Quinn said.

He scoffed at the idea of Christie offering advice on the budget and jobs, saying the New Jersey governor has tried to balance his state's budget by skipping payments to government retirement systems, cutting education funds, canceling a major public works project and reversing a property tax relief program.

"I don't know why anybody would listen to him," Quinn said at a Chicago news conference on an unrelated topic.


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  • why wouldnt we listen
    Why would the public not listen to other states. Hey Quinn how many counties did you win in the Governors race? THREE you have got to be kidding - no 3 counties. And now the corruption has re-instated a non illinois resident the ability to stay on the mayoral race in Chicago. Crooked Crooked Crooked.

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  1. Well, we could blame ABC because they haven't advertised the INDY 500....not during the HUGE TV rating shows like Dancing with the Stars (of which IICS driver Helio Castroneves is a former champion). He never won a CART championship, did he?

    We could blame the new car...because it's ugly and has a V6 that has less horsepower than the pace car. CART (to my knowledge) never had that problem with cars they presented at the speedway years 1979 through 1995.

    We could blame the fencepost, but that would be crass. Or maybe Danica? Or maybe Jean Alesi....or boost increases from constant rules tampering. Maybe we could blame Penske who still is winning everything as usual.

    Maybe we can blame the world for not understanding the the great Indy gods who regularly twist things in such ways that we mere mortals must only accept, but never question.

    So, it does beg the question....who is responsible if the series and Indy continues to flounder? Are the responsibilities so diffuse and complicated that no one really is to blame for it's fall from grace?

    I urge the speedway to sign on for 7 more years of ABC coverage and 7 more years of NBC Sports Network coverage. It been win-win so far....*cough* *cough*

  2. "They're problem was thinking they were bigger than the institution that made their existence possible. That turned out to be a mistake."

    The above quote made by Disciple shows his continued inability to grasp a simple concept: CART is dead. Twice. It provided a brilliant stage for some of the best open wheel racing in all the past century of racing. It's gone DOOD, get over it.

    PLEASE explain, Mr. Disciple of INDYCAR, why you continually hammer home, even on the eve of the 2012 Indy 500, this same point...over and over? Seriously, why does the legacy of CART haunt you so much?

    The same problems that affected the sport for over a century of AOW racing STILL affect it now. Your answers (or lack thereof) belittle the very sport you claim to love. Indy rots in your hands yet you request status quo. You negate salient points with drivel...always.

    Indy is not going to die. But, it is dying...are you willing to accept that? "Indy is a hot mess"....it's true. Yet you want it that way? What is wrong with you?

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  4. Triscuts...love um!

  5. Of course the fair will go on. Don't you big city reporters understand county fairs? Get outside the beltway and see what life is really like!

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