Will County Gazette

Illinois State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) recently said Illinois needs to become more business-friendly to boost the state's economy.

"Illinois has all the resources to be one of the top states in the nation for business,” Batnick wrote in a July 19 Facebook post. “If we want to get to first place, then we have to implement business-friendly policies that encourage investment and growth in our state."

Currently, Illinois is ranked 19th on America's Top States for Business in 2022, CNBC’s annual competitiveness ranking, four places worse than in 2021, Patch reported. The state had 1,344 points out of a possible 2,500. Illinois was given a "C" grade for its workforce, an "A" for infrastructure, a "B-" for cost of doing business, an "F" for its economy, a "C-" for "life, health, and inclusion," an "A-" for technology and innovation, an "F" for business friendliness, an "A-" for education, a "B+" for access to capital, and a "B-" for cost of living.

The top five states for business, according to the report, are North Carolina, Washington, Virginia, Colorado, and Texas.

Billionaire Ken Griffin, formerly the wealthiest man in Illinois, announced he has moving to Florida, and taking hedge fund Citadel, as well as Citadel Securities with him, Market Watch reported.

“Chicago will continue to be important to the future of Citadel, as many of our colleagues have deep ties to Illinois,” Griffin wrote in a letter to employees. “Over the past year, however, many of our Chicago teams have asked to relocate to Miami, New York, and our other offices around the world.”

Griffin is among the 50 wealthiest people in the world, with an estimated worth of $28.9 billion, according to a recent MarketWatch report. His announcement was the third in the past two months of major companies pulling their headquarters out of Illinois. Citadel officials cited Chicago's high crime rate as a factor in Griffin's decision.

Caterpillar announced June 14, plans to relocate its headquarters from Deerfield, Illinois, to Irving, Texas, according to a press release.

“We believe it’s in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move, which supports Caterpillar’s strategy for profitable growth as we help our customers build a better, more sustainable world,” Caterpillar Chairman and CEO, Jim Umpleby said, in the release.

Boeing announced in May that it will relocate its headquarters from Chicago to a suburb of Washington, NBC reported.

“We are excited to build on our foundation here in Northern Virginia," Boeing President and CEO, Dave Calhoun, said in a statement. "The region makes strategic sense for our global headquarters given its proximity to our customers and stakeholders, and its access to world-class engineering and technical talent."

Earlier this year, Chief Executive Magazine conducted a survey of about 700 business owners from every state and ranked Illinois 48th overall, meaning it is the third-worst state in the country for business, The Center Square reported. Only California and New York were ranked worse than Illinois. Texas, Florida, and Tennessee were ranked as the top states for doing business.

“We’re too corrupt,” Wirepoints President, Ted Dabrowski, told The Center Square. “Our taxes are way too high. We have way too many regulations, and we have massive debts, and that is plenty of reason enough for companies to not want to locate in Illinois, not to mention the state is shrinking in population so it's not a growth state to put your business in.”

 Mark Batinick was first elected to the Illinois General Assembly in 2014. A Republican, his professional experience includes serving as a spokesperson on the Personnel and Pensions committee. Batinick, a resident of Plainfield, Illinois, is serving his fourth term, according to his Illinois General Assembly biography.