Illinois lagging the nation for entrepreneurship, economic growth

By Glenn Minnis | The Center Square contributor
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois Policy Institute’s Josh Bandoch says he could have easily predicted the state would rank as lowly as it does across the country for entrepreneurship and economic growth.

A new Archbridge Institute study pegs Illinois 45th in the nation in that department stemming from criteria assessed based on its ability “to lift barriers to human flourishing” and metrics that include taxes, regulations, business dynamism and housing.

“Illinois is one of the most regulated states in the nation and that’s a problem for economic growth and entrepreneurship,” Bandoch told The Center Square. “One of the things that the score on regulations looks at is what’s called restrictive language, basically that’s anything in the legal code that says either shall or shall not. The average state has about 132,000 instances of this language. Illinois by contrast has 282,000, more than double the median and what that means is it’s really hard for individuals and businesses in Illinois to innovate and create value.”

With the state also ranking 44th in tax environment and 41st in regulations, Bandoch warns the price the state is being forced to pay could soon grow steeper.

“I think that’s what we’ve seen over the last decade or so, hundreds of thousands of people on net have left Illinois because this is not a place where either as individuals and families or as workers and business owners that they feel like they have a bright future and they feel like they can’t live their version of the American dream here in Illinois,” he said. “What a lot of people have done is they’ve been voting with their feet, whether it’s the typical places like Florida or Texas or Tennessee or our neighboring states like Indiana. The threat to Illinois is that if it doesn’t reform more people will leave.”

With Illinois also ranking in the bottom half for housing affordability and the state often faced with criticism for issuing the third-fewest housing permits per 1,000 people, Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently announced the launch of a program offering up to $15,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance to eligible first-time home buyers.