Illinois Chamber of Commerce CEO says 'one-time factors' led to state's jump in one business ranking

[August 07, 2021]  By Elyse Kelly

(The Center Square) – Illinois jumped from 13th to 15th among top states for business in CNBC’s annual study of America’s Top States for Business, but some of the state’s metrics still don’t look so good.

The study used 85 different metrics to determine the rankings including infrastructure and access to capital, in which Illinois ranked first and third, respectively.

Todd Maisch, president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, says while this looks good, a deeper dive into the methodology is telling.

“The categories they use for infrastructure, in which Illinois is ranked number one, and access to capital, we’re ranked number three – if those were not where they are, we would not be anywhere close to 15, I don’t think,” Maisch said.

Other studies of business climate have put Illinois in the bottom half of all states. A ranking by CEOs published in May found Illinois was No. 48 in the nation for the 11th consecutive year.

Maisch points out strength in both of these metrics is vital to the economy, and Illinois has done some good things within them, but many of the policies that helped the state do well in those categories are transitory.

“Is this a transitory rating?” he said. “Because there are a lot of things that are in the ratings that yes, could easily be one-time or two-year issues.”

Maisch notes the study weighted states’ aggressiveness in responding to COVID-19 heavily. In addition, much of Illinois’ accessible capital in the past year came from federal intervention.

“The state was pretty aggressive in pushing out the federal assistance through the PPP loans, and IDA loans, and the dollars that came in through the latest stimulus plan, so I think that helped as well,” he said.

Maisch is concerned that the enhancement these gave the state will not last, and points out many of the programs that boosted access to capital are running out.

“Are they one-time occurrences, or is it really the baseline economy that we’re talking about?” he said. “I suspect they’re one-time factors.”
 

The state’s economy and business friendliness rankings were some of the worst in the nation. Maisch points out the inconsistency.

“How do you rank Illinois at 15th overall when [the] cost of doing business is at 29, the overall economy is at 48th and business friendliness at 48th?” he said. “It looks like we have benefitted from some of these one-time, transitory issues when the bottom line is that our economy, business-friendliness and cost of doing business are well under the national average.”

To be truly a top state for business, Maisch says the state should look at improving its business friendliness rating because that’s easily addressed.

“How long does it take to get an environmental permit? How long does it take to go ahead and get a permit to construct something?”

Maisch says addressing these and similar problems can be impacted directly.