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State of the State: Lawmakers Should Use Caution When Considering Job Creation Plans

Jamey Dunn
WUIS/Illinois Issues

Gov. Pat Quinn and state Sen. Bill Brady have made it clear that they see job creation as the No. 1 issue in their race for the governor’s office. In a state with an unemployment rate of more than 11 percent, it is pretty safe to say that joblessness is a top concern of many voters, too. 

The legislature tackled the issue during its spring session and tossed around some contentious proposals under the tag line of job creation. Lawmakers aired concerns about environmental protection, security, tax revenue and consumer protection, while weighing the need for new jobs against effects that mechanisms for job creation might have on the future of the state. 

The highest profile debate over what many saw as a jobs issue came after President Barack Obama’s administration agreed to buy the Thomson Correctional Center in December with the intention of using it to house suspected terrorists after the planned closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The prison was completed in 2001 and has sat relatively empty since. It is in Carroll County, which has an unemployment rate of almost 15 percent.

Republicans, including Brady, voiced concerns that the deal lacked transparency and said the prison should be used to alleviate overcrowding in Illinois’ corrections system. Many said they were worried about the security implications of locking up suspected al-Qaeda members in the state.

“How bad is it in Illinois? Our economic development program consists of relocating terrorists,” joked Dan Proft, who was then a Republican candidate for governor.

It has since become uncertain whether former Guantanamo detainees will be moved to Illinois. The president’s January deadline for closing the facility has long passed. However, the Obama administration has said it would still use Thomson as a federal prison, no matter what the final outcome is for locating the detainees. 

Rep. Jim Sacia, a Pecatonica Republican, says arguments about overcrowding should not stop Illinois from selling Thomson. He says he has tried for the eight years he has been in office to get the prison opened in some capacity to bring jobs to his area. “If we couldn’t afford to open it then, don’t you dare get on your high horse and tell me we can afford to open it today.” 

Sen. Dave Syverson from Rockford was one of the few Republican voices joining Sacia. He adamantly opposes the closure of Guantanamo and the plan to move the prisoners to the U.S. mainland. However, he says if it is going to happen, Illinois should take advantage of the situation to bring jobs to an economically depressed area of the state. 

The House passed House Bill 4744 in February, which would require Quinn to get legislative approval if he wants to sell any facility worth more than $1 million. “Properties worth more than $1 million, like the Thomson Correctional Center, should not be sold in the dead of night by administrative procedure but in the light of day with legislative approval,” says the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Michael Tryon of Crystal Lake.

Sen. James Meeks, a Chicago Demo- crat, argued near the close of session in favor of another controversial plan that he hopes would bring jobs to the hard-hit village of Ford Heights, a Cook County suburb with an unemployment rate of 29 percent. The measure, which would categorize burning tires for fuel as a source of renewable energy, has many detractors. 

Defining tires as a source of renewable power would help a local tire incinerator owned by Geneva Energy to obtain grants and low-interest loans now only offered to traditionally sustainable sources such as wind and solar power. It would also put the plant in competition as Illinois power companies seek more “green” energy to fulfill a requirement that 25 percent of their power comes from renewable sources by 2025. The president and chief executive officer of the plant, Ben Rose, says the reclassification may keep it from closing down.

“We have been operating this plant for the last five years. Nothing changes according to this bill except for a definition. We can now, under this bill if it becomes law, define what we’re doing as renewable energy,” says Meeks, whose district contains the village. “The people down in Ford Heights, we really need this because businesses are leaving, and the last thing we need to do is have another business or plant leave Ford Heights.”

Supporters also say the plant destroys tires that would otherwise go to landfills or fill with rainwater to become a breeding ground for mosquitoes that could carry West Nile virus. 

But many just can’t swallow the idea of giving renewable energy status to a plant that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has cited for air pollution violations four times since 2006. The House passed the bill, but the Senate voted it down.

“I certainly would like to help the village of Ford Heights. … But in saying this bill doesn’t do anything other than change the definition — that’s exactly what it does. It changes a very important definition. It defines the burning of tires as a renewable energy. … That is not renewable energy. I understand the impetus. I understand the importance of economic development … but the method here is wrong,” says Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat. 

Sen. William Delgado, a Chicago Democrat, says the state should seek to create and encourage cutting-edge energy generation instead of creating incentives for polluting. “Illinois should be moving forward and creating new economies, especially in workforce development in the south. … I want this to stir a conversation of innovation.”

 

An issue directly related to job creation originally proposed last legislative session is back this year for another round. Sales Tax Revenue Bonds, or STAR bonds, first surfaced as a plan to finance a large shopping and entertainment development in Glen Carbon, located in Madison County, which has an unemployment rate of almost 12 percent. The proposal would use state sales tax money from businesses in the district for bonding to fund a development project. 

The bill passed in 2009, but Quinn vetoed it. When the plan met strong opposition again this year, it was moved to Marion in Williamson County, which has an 11 percent unemployment rate. Mayors in the Glen Carbon area opposed the bill because they said it would take tax dollars and unfairly put them toward the projects of one developer, in this case Bruce Holland and his Holland Construction. They also said it would hurt other area businesses. 

Opponents are concerned that while this proposal is geared toward a specific project, once the STAR genie is out of the bottle, other districts will be created throughout Illinois and will cut into state sales tax revenue at a time when there is none to spare. 

Marion Democratic Rep. John Bradley told his fellow representatives he was “begging” them to give the idea a chance, so new jobs would come to his district. The House passed Senate Bill 1909 after Bradley’s impassioned appeal. 

Perhaps one of the largest pieces of legislation to pass under the banner of job creation this session was a sweeping rewrite of the Telecommunications Act (see page 31). Legislators slapped each other on the back upon passage of the bill, which was generally agreed upon by most parties involved in the process. However, the Citizens Utility Board, a nonprofit organization created by the government to protect the interests of utility consumers, raised red flags about the rollback on consumer protections and the lack of guarantees that the changes would bring in jobs. 

Illinois’ unemployment rate is higher than the national average. Manufacturing industries have been taking a hit for years, and state government’s fiscal situation is in rapid decline. Add a national recession the likes of which hasn’t been seen in decades, and soon the economy seems to overshadow all other interests. 

It is the job of state legislators to lobby for their districts and put constituents’ needs at the top of their lists of concerns. It is also difficult to tell an unemployed parent with a family that such issues as environmental concerns or tax revenues, which may seem far from personal to them, have to be considered along with job creation. 

Nevertheless, legislators must scrutinize development or regulatory proposals that involve a large trade-off, and many plans do. They must weigh the needs of communities against any long-term benefits or damages, perhaps even more so during times when areas desperate for development make prime targets for those who might seek to cash in on their hardship. 

That is not to say that all development, even some that involves sacrifice, is in some way predatory or bad for communities or the state as a whole. It is just that both the affected communities and the long-term direction in which the state is headed should be considered when making such decisions. And leaders must fight the temptation to automatically jump on board with any proposal that promises jobs.

 

“Properties worth more than $1 million, like the Thomson Correctional Center, should not be sold in the dead of night by administrative procedure but in the light of day with legislative approval.”Rep. Michael Tryon

 

Illinois Issues, June 2010

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