Illinois is paying over $206,000 per job for 2,600 jobs. The primary beneficiary is a Chinese company known for stealing technology.
Chinese Companies and Your Tax Dollars
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker doles out $536 Million in tax credits and other incentives to lure Gotion, a battery firm that no other states wanted.
American taxpayers are now funding Chinese manufacturing, and the Illinois governor has waved away all questions about the new Chinese-owned battery company in the state.https://t.co/96dLn4E9eM
— Wall Street Journal Opinion (@WSJopinion) October 21, 2023
The Wall Street Journal comments on Chinese Companies and Your Tax Dollars
It isn’t easy luring corporations to Illinois these days, so Gov. J.B. Pritzker celebrated when the state landed a big electric-vehicle battery plant in September. The real winner, however, is Gotion, the Chinese company that is collecting taxpayer financing to subsidize its EV manufacturing.
Mr. Pritzker boasted that the new $2 billion factory would bring 2,600 green jobs to the Land of Lincoln and represents “the most significant new manufacturing investment in Illinois in decades.” The company’s decision was helped by a $536 million Illinois subsidy package, including $213 million in tax benefits, a 30-year property tax freeze and $125 million from the state-lending program Invest in Illinois.
In a Sept. 13 letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Reps. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) and John Moolenaar (R., Mich.) noted that Gotion “has direct ties to the CCP [Chinese Community Party] and state-owned financial institutions” and has been part of a Chinese program the FBI has flagged for “theft of trade secrets and economic espionage.”
That seems worth examining, but who will do it, if not Mr. Pritzker? The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has said Gotion’s projects don’t fall under its jurisdiction.
In January 2023, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin turned away a Ford factory that was partnering with Chinese battery maker CATL, on the grounds that the company was a “Trojan horse” for Beijing. It set up in Michigan instead, but on Sept. 25, Ford said it paused the project until it was “confident about our ability to competitively operate the plant.”
Open for Business
Mr. Pritzker called Gotion’s arrival “the most recent proof that we are in a new paradigm. Illinois is on the rise, and we’re open for business.”
Open to leave is more like it. Numerous corporations are voting with their feet due to Illinois’ high-crime and high-tax reality.
TTX Joins Major Chicago Leaving Chicago
The Illinois Policy Institute reports TTX Joins Major Chicago Leaving Chicago
Freight railroad car company TTX is moving its headquarters from Chicago’s West Loop to North Carolina.
Last year major corporations such as Caterpillar, Citadel, Boeing and Tyson Foods announced relocations out of the Chicago area. Guggenheim Partners more quietly made moves to leave the city and join fellow investment firm Citadel in Miami.
Hoot of the Day
Illinois is paying over $206,000 per job created to a company the FBI has flagged for “theft of trade secrets and economic espionage.” And Governor Pritzker is bragging about it.
It’s “proof of a new paradigm,” said Pritzker. Indeed.
Chicago’s Problem is Crime, the Mayor’s Solution is City-Run Grocery Stores
In case you missed it, please see Chicago’s Problem is Crime, the Mayor’s Solution is City-Run Grocery Stores
If you are a store owner in Chicago suffering huge losses to theft or if you are an individual tired of the crime and piss poor public schools, I have a suggestion: leave.
But think about where your going. Leaving Chicago isn’t enough. I advise leaving the state.
Reserve your U-Haul well in advance. Recall that It Takes 3 Weeks to Escape Illinois, at least it did for us because all of the one-way U-Haul rentals were headed out.
