McHenry Times

Illinois state Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) blames the State's "declining business friendliness" for why companies are choosing to leave Illinois, as another opts to move its headquarters.

Ken Griffin, a billionaire who was once the wealthiest person in the state, recently announced he moved to Florida and took Citadel there with him, a report by MarketWatch said.

"Chicago will continue to be important to the future of Citadel, as many of our colleagues have deep ties to Illinois,” Griffin told employees in a letter, quoted by MarketWatch. “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.”

This was the third company in two months to announce it was headed outside of Illinois. Wilcox believes it's up to the voters to rectify the situation. 

"Democrat majorities and trifecta control of Illinois have led to an alarming exodus of major corporations, small businesses and residents, and will result in long-term tax implications for every remaining Illinoisan," Wilcox told the McHenry Times. "The continuing exodus of wealth from Illinois is a death spiral, and until voters elect leaders with a business-savvy policy base, we are doomed to read headlines like this possibly weekly, but certainly monthly for the foreseeable future." 

Caterpillar recently announced that it would be moving its headquarters to Irving, Texas, from Deerfield, Ill., a company press release said. 

“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,” Jim Umpleby, chairman and CEO, said in the release. 

In May, Boeing announced that it too would be taking its headquarters out of Illinois to a suburb of Washington, D.C., an NBC Chicago report said. Dave Calhoun, Boeing president and CEO, said in a statement that the move made better "strategic sense" because of where Northern Virginia is situated. 

The Center Square recently reported that a survey by Chief Executive magazine found Illinois to be among the worst states for business, ranking the Prairie State 48th in the nation.

“We’re too corrupt,” Wirepoints president Ted Dabrowski told The Center Square. “Our taxes are way too high. We have way too many regulations and we have massive debts, and that is plenty of reason enough for companies to not want to locate in Illinois, not to mention the state is shrinking in population so it's not a growth state to put your business in.”