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U.S. Census Bureau statistics show only 5.6% of business
applications across the state ultimately turned into
establishments open for business within the first year, equating
to the third-lowest conversion rate in the Midwest and falling
well below the national average of 6.1%.
The data comes despite the state ranking near the top across the
region for approval to operate applications submitted.
“It's extremely difficult to start and grow a new business in
Illinois because everything that the Democrat majority does
leads to higher costs, more regulation and more restriction,”
Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, told The Center Square. “We are now the
No. 1 property tax state in the nation, No. 2 in gas taxes and
the list goes on. Businesses are going to go where there's less
regulation, less taxing and a more ready supply of the workforce
and Illinois is doing everything they can to make it more
difficult.”
Illinois lost 218 businesses to other states in 2023, and since
1994, that number jumps to 2,616, with the count tripling since
the start of the pandemic.
Halbrook said the bottom may still be yet to surface.
“There's people that have to live here, whether they're in the
farming business or have a business that just has to stay, but
it's just going to get more difficult,” he said. “Their cost of
doing business is going to continue to increase, their margins
either shrink or their prices go up, or both. We just have to
continue to sound the alarm of how these policies that the
Democrats pass every spring and every fall are detrimental to
living and working, raising a family and growing a business in
the state.”
Florida, Tennessee, Texas and North Carolina rank among the top
states for attracting businesses from other states, with
California, New York and Maryland near the bottom.
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