Kane County Reporter

State Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) has joined a growing number of Republican lawmakers in Illinois who have called for business reforms in an effort to keep more businesses in the Prairie State. 

Republicans have a tough battle in the state legislature, a notion Ugaste is aware of especially since they hold the minority on top of the sheer volume of bills, which have reached about 600, to advance this legislative session. 

“Over 500 of those were Democrat bills, only about 70 were Republican bills,” Ugaste told Advantage News. “We’re not being allowed to fix the problems that are addressing this state.”

Boeing, Tyson Foods, Caterpillar, and several other companies were among the businesses that announced they'd be leaving the state within the past year. According to Advantage News, Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar's CEO, had warned state lawmakers about Illinois' anti-business climate more than a decade ago. 

In State Rep. Joe Sosnowski's (R-Rockford) district, automaker Stellantis shuttered its plant in Belvidere and afterwards announced it would be making $155 million dollar investment across state lines in Indiana. It's decisions like this one that have only added to an exodus from the state, with one time Illinois residents seeking opportunities outside of the Prairie State. According to the article, it's a decision that cost more than 1,300 Illinois workers their jobs. Sosnowski added, “If we grew at the same rate as some of our neighboring states, we would have over a million more people living in Illinois over the last ten years."

Advantage News pointed out that Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) has touted a glowing picture of the local economy and boasted about the state taking in more revenue than expected. This as recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed Illinois has experienced a record population decline with the number of people living in the state dropping by 104,437 residents between July 2021 and July 2022.