http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wium/local-wium-995414.mp3
Springfield, IL – Illinois legislators left Springfield Tuesday night without accomplishing the primary objective of their one-day session: passing incentives for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Sears to stay in Illinois.
Other states are trying to lure the Exchange and Sears with financial perks, so the plan was for Illinois to offer a deal of its own. With an unemployment rate topping 10%, Illinois desperately wants to keep the jobs created by those big companies.
But a package that would have given the pair tax breaks got tangled in a stalemate.
Legislators such as Representative Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) said corporations don't deserve the help.
"Is it fair that we make sure that the trustees of these companies be made whole while we the taxpayers leave with absolutely nothing? After all this is a free market and the companies should be able to fail or succeed on their own," Flowers said.
But another central debate is unrelated to CME and Sears. It's over the size of tax credits for individuals.
The Senate approved a package that increases to 10% a tax credit for the working poor, and it indexes the personal exemption to inflation. The House soundly rejected that version with only 8 Representatives in favor and 99 against.
A spokesman for Sears said the company is holding to its end-of-year deadline to decide its future.
Thanks to Illinois Public Radio