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Senate Bill 2791 never made it out of the spring legislative
session, but proponents say it would even the playing field for
small businesses seeking grants in Illinois, by requiring that
at least 50% of the dollar value of all economic incentives that
are awarded are channeled toward businesses with 50 or fewer
full-time employees.
State Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, is drawing attention to
the measure that’s currently sitting in committee. Recently,
Gov. J.B. Pritzker enacted and touted the tax incentives for the
electric vehicle and quantum computers industries.
"We certainly don’t want grants allocated to big, wealthy
corporations and we have seen that and that’s been met with some
resistance from the Republican-side of the aisle. It’s unique,
where you’ve seen conservative Republicans and progressive
Democrats both speak out against what we would argue is
corporate welfare,” said Chesney.
Democrats like state Sens. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, and Ram
Villivalam, D-Chicago, have sponsored the measure. Chesney
explained how he is generally skeptical of grants, but because
Illinois continues to have high taxes and over regulation there
has to be protections in place.
"I think we should lower the cost of business across the board
rather than businesses having to figure out a very complicated
grant process and wait for their acceptance or denial,” said
Chesney.
The Illinois Policy Institute recently revealed that small
businesses are the only job creators that are adding jobs
actively to the state’s economy. Since the pandemic, businesses
with fewer than 20 employees have added nearly 170,000 jobs,
which makes up all the net jobs growth in the state in that
time.
“There’s thousands of grants that are issued by the state of
Illinois and some of the concerns that Republicans and some
Democrats have had is that we certainly don’t want grants
allocated to big, wealthy corporations,” said Chesney.
One grant program announced by the governor is the ”New Stores
in Food Deserts Program.” Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration
said it will offer competitive grants to encourage the
establishment of new grocery stores in USDA-defined food
deserts. Paired with the Equipment Upgrades Program, the
initiatives cost the taxpayer $20 million. Chesney said
Republicans and Democrats agree on this issue.
"My preference would be to lower the corporate state tax and
lower regulation and allow Illinois to be more-favorable to
small business. Absent of that, we have to have a program in
place where small businesses are getting a fair crack at the
overall grant-pie,” said Chesney.
The measure is in the Rules Committee and may resurface during
the fall veto session.
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