In January 2003, Good Jobs First-Illinois released its 96-page study, A Better Deal for Illinois: Improving Economic Development Policy. The study spanned 25 years, covering five major deals and two major programs. It described how Illinois state government overspent on some deals, fueled suburban sprawl, and relied on unaccountable, unevaluated, and ineffective business tax expenditures.

For example, 17 years after widespread criticism of the huge state incentives for the Diamond-Star assembly plant, Illinois still could not determine when or if taxpayers break even on such large subsidy deals. A Better Deal also critiqued the state’s massive underwriting of sprawl in Sears' controversial transfer of its downtown Chicago headquarters to an affluent suburb inaccessible to many of its employees.

The report also tracked the perversion of tax increment financing from its origins as an anti-poverty tool to an all-purpose business incentive often draining property tax revenue from Illinois schools. Another chapter exposed the single sales factor scam, a recent income tax windfall for giant Illinois corporations successfully but falsely sold to the legislature as a job-creation tool.

The report proposed common-sense reforms for these problems, some already pioneered by other Midwestern states. These included disclosure, “clawbacks” (money-back guarantees), job quality standards, and integrating development spending with public transportation systems. Good Jobs First also advocated creation of a unified budget for all Illinois economic development, including forgone tax revenue.

Widely publicized, the report was quickly distributed to members of the Illinois legislature. It was also republished in State Tax Notes. In Illinois, Good Jobs First testified three times before state legislative committees on different aspects of the report. Many recommendations from A Better Deal were incorporated in the major state subsidy reform legislation made law later that year.

For the full text of the report, go to http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/il.pdf