West Cook News

Oak Park Village Trustee Jim Dodge recently commented on Illinois' Amendment 1, the Right to Collective Bargaining measure.

“I support the idea of every American having the right to organize and take part in the system," Dodge said. "The issue here is this particular law stands to make things even more unbalanced. On top of that, I don’t think that the state of Illinois did a good job of explaining what this is about and how it stands to affect everyone. I think it gives an unfair advantage to organized labor.”

According to Ballotpedia, the measure insures employees have a "fundamental right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of negotiating wages, hours, and working conditions, and to protect their economic welfare and safety at work" and prohibit any law that "interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively."

The ballot measure passed with 58.36% of the vote.

When asked if the measure would make union bosses too powerful, Dodge disagreed. "I don’t put much stock in that argument. I think that more people need to be aware that organizing to effect policy is a good thing to do."

Dodge thinks standards should be different for private and public entities.

"If a private sector union wants to strike, that’s one thing," Dodge said. "But when you're a public entity and you deny services to people to force an outcome I think there should be a different standard. I think people need to understand if a public entity can strike and deny services that have to be paid for by the public that is problematic and needs to be addressed. That this may have implications on property taxes, leaders should have done a better job of informing people before they have to make a choice."

The Tax Foundation’s 2023 State Business Tax Climate rankings show that Illinois has become less friendly to businesses over the last five years, dropping from 29th in 2018 to 36th in this year's ranking, Illinois Policy reported. 

The rankings are calculated based on corporate, income, sales, property, and unemployment insurance taxes. Illinois' neighboring states all stayed the same or improved their rankings between 2018 and this year. Indiana held steady at ninth on the list, while Michigan moved up one spot from 13th to 12th. Missouri and Wisconsin both improved their rankings by 4 spots, moving up from 15th to 11th and 31st to 27th respectively. Iowa moved up 8 spots from 46th to 38th, while Kentucky saw the largest improvement, jumping 19 spots from 37th to 18th. Illinois' unemployment rate was the highest in the nation as of September. The Illinois Policy report suggested that the state's business climate contributed to major companies moving their headquarters elsewhere. This year, companies including Caterpillar, Boeing, Tyson, and Citadel announced they were moving their businesses to other states.

Caterpillar announced on June 14 that it is relocating 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,” said Chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby.

Boeing announced in May that it is relocating its headquarters from Chicago to a suburb of Washington, DC, NBC Chicago reported. “We are excited to build on our foundation here in Northern Virginia," Boeing President and Chief Executive Officer 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."

Billionaire Ken Griffin announced this year that he's moving hedge fund Citadel and market-maker Citadel Securities to Florida, 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.”

The Illinois Policy report said that Illinois' property tax is the main driver of its tax burden.

Illinois' property tax rate is the second highest in the nation at 2.27%, behind only New Jersey, according to a June report by Rocket Mortgage. The owner of a $194,500 home in Illinois pays $4,942 annually in property taxes. 30 states have property tax rates lower than 1%.