Easy to explain exodus from Illinois

Caterpillar rules out Illinois for its new plant and takes the plant and 1,400 jobs to Georgia. A recent Chicago Tribune editorial, “Bye-bye, jobs,” explained that Orascom Construction Industries, largest company in Egypt and headed by a U of C graduate, selected Iowa for their new fertilizer plant due to Illinois’ corruption, pension debt and taxes. In a recent Daily Herald story, a developer drops its garage and hotel plans in Des Plaines because of Cook County’s tax structure being higher than anywhere else in the country where they operate. S&P lowered Illinois’ bond rating in August from A+ to A, which gives us the nation’s second-lowest rating, and every drop costs us more interest when we borrow to cover our huge debt.

So are we finally upset to the point we will vote out House Speaker Michael Madigan and his incompetent, corrupt cronies who have run the state for 30 years? I suspect not, and our only option is to leave the state — maybe go to Georgia or Iowa where there are some new job openings.

Mike Haase

Mount Prospect