Sears Leaving Illinois? Gov. Quinn: Ohio Offered Retailer $400 Million

With the Illinois state legislature still deliberating a tax incentive package to lure both Sears Holdings Corp. and the CME Group to keep their operations in the state, an offer from another state referenced by Gov. Pat Quinn serves as a stark reminder of how high the stakes are.

Quinn told WJBC that Ohio, one of the states rumored to be wooing Sears away from Illinois, offered the retailer $400 million if they make the move. Sears is among the state's largest employers.

"We aren’t offering anywhere close to that," Quinn admitted to WJBC, "but I think Sears understands that being in Illinois is the best place to be in the Midwest."

Ohio Gov. John Kasich doesn't appear too confident Sears will accept his state's offer, the Capitol Fax blog pointed out Monday morning. He told WTAM he expects Illinois will do "whatever they needed" to keep the retailer at their Hoffman Estates, Ill. base.

State Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, state House Revenue Committee chairman, told Crain's Chicago Business that the state has "got to figure out a way to work this out" and keep CME Group, Sears as well as CBOE Holdings, which has also threatened to leave, in Illinois. The details of the offer for the companies are expected to be unveiled Wednesday.

The previously proposed tax cut package for the companies ballooned to an estimated $850 million a year in reduced revenue for the financially-hobbled state due to the addition of tax breaks for smaller businesses and an extension of the earned income tax credit.

The tax breaks for the companies have been criticized as "corporate welfare" and "an exercise in pure, unadulterated corporate greed" by progressive group Stand Up! Chicago and members of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Meanwhile, Illinois' unemployment rate increased for the sixth-straight month in October and has now inched up to 10.1 percent, a full percentage point above the national average.

Lawmakers are due to return to Springfield to discuss the matter and continue their already busy fall veto session Nov. 29.

Comments

[Chestnut horse]

12:06 AM on 11/23/2011

They will keep Sears and then raise our property taxes. Illinois politics at its best.

[Christopher Eric Kulbeda]

10:06 PM on 11/22/2011

Sears is far along the way of becoming extinct as we know it now. Likely only will survive as a company without it's own stores that licenses it's brand names to other retailers.

[Wesley Chu]

04:18 PM on 11/22/2011

Let them leave. There's a reason people need to be paid to move to Ohio.

[fortressfountain]

02:05 PM on 11/22/2011

Instead of the politicans using our tax dollars to lure the useless retailers into town-why not lure some decant, well paying jobs into town.
People used to make good money working at Sears-now their are no commissions and such.

[rchsod]

12:49 AM on 11/22/2011

did quinn and company cut a deal with caterpillar for thier 800million

did quinn and company cut a deal with caterpillar so they could invest 800+million in illinois? so we are to take the hit on sears who by all accounts is going bankrupt? what a bunch of clowns in springfield.

[wewin]

11:49 PM on 11/21/2011

I won't buy a thing from this store ever again!

[robert horwitz]

05:57 PM on 11/21/2011

Come on Pat. Just tell them to have a nice trip and offer to sit on a suitcase if they are having trouble packing. Enough with all this corporate extortion.

[Marc Kivel]

03:06 PM on 11/21/2011

OK, help me out...why do our pols use public funds to subsidize businesses that ought to be able to be profitable or fail on there own? Oh, I remember, the pols get pay offs and the public gets the costs....kinda socialize the costs and privatize the profits, huh?

[freegeg]

02:40 PM on 11/21/2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Holdings_Corporation

* The company received a 100% rating on the 2009 Corporate Equality Index published by the Human Rights Campaign,[23] for the fourth year in a row.
* It was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.[24]
* The company was named as one of the Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality published by the Human Rights Campaign,[25] for 2009.

We would love to have you here in Ohio!!!!!

[BushBites]

09:55 PM on 11/21/2011

* The company's on its last legs and whichever state gets stuck with it will also get stuck paying unemployment to its employees when it shuts down.

Take them, please.

[12Purple]

10:28 AM on 11/22/2011

As an ex Sears employee (Coporate level), you may like it for about 6 months. I can honestly say that I've seen 3 women replaced by men when they were on maternity leave - and just in my small division, two gay and one lesbian creatively demoted by management adding another management layer above them. After those GL persons resigned - things remained the same and the lower management jobs were eliminated.

I've also seen sexual and racially harassment, some very subtile - some not.

I don't know where Wikipedia got those numbers - but hey - I rarely trust that as a reference source.

And have you been into a Sears store in Ohio recently? I bet it looks pretty shabby because Fast Eddy doesn't like to spend money on those types of things.

And have you looked at the loss they posted this last quarter? They just want to move from Illinois because the money train here is bankrupt. They can bleed Ohio dry - and then move to another state.

[BluebirdofUnhappiness]

02:34 PM on 11/21/2011

Wonder why your unemploment and taxes go up while your services go down? Freeloading corporations and governors who think counting coup on other states is the essence of America.

[MWA1111]

04:02 PM on 11/21/2011

How are the corps freeloading when they provide jobs for thousands (all of whom pay income taxes and live, work, and spend locally), donate time and money to the community, pay taxes in indirect ways such as fuel, tolls, licensing etc, in logistics. They also provide a lot of business for smaller companies that call on them or provide support functions.

Let all the large corps leave the state and see what effect that has on a local economy.

[BushBites]

09:57 PM on 11/21/2011

Well, you gotta pick and choose.

I'd keep United, Boeing, Abbot, some of the dot-coms, etc.

But Sears isn't worth the trouble.

[wewin]

11:48 PM on 11/21/2011

They have to pay the same rate as other corporations! No sweetheart deals!

[billbaksin]

02:11 PM on 11/21/2011

Good bye Sears...and take your Illinois retail stores with you.

[capitolfax]

02:09 PM on 11/21/2011

Complete rewrite of my blog post top to bottom without so much as a hat tip. Sheesh.

[olliesmom115]

01:37 PM on 11/21/2011

What's a "Sears"?

[jimme]

12:45 AM on 11/22/2011

A place to get burned.

[PalaceOfWisdom]

01:22 PM on 11/21/2011

This further demonstrates why we should eliminate corporate taxation entirely in favor of progressive personal income taxes, and tax capital gains as regular income. As is, we have states being extorted, and the people lose. All imported goods and services would be taxed at 35% with no loopholes. You create a huge incentive to locate in America, remove the incentive to get states bidding against each other, and the few hoarding all the cash have to pay up rather than hide it overseas. Executives are legally required to act in the company's best interests, so they couldn't prioritize their own gain over the greater good.

[BushBites]

01:21 PM on 11/21/2011

Let 'em go.