Forum discusses ways to help Illinois businesses

How can Illinois business get back on track?

A panel of experts gathered in Schaumburg Sunday for an event sponsored by the politically conservative Family Taxpayers Foundation to offer some answers.

The consensus favored lower taxes, reform of the state’s pension system and an overhaul of the state’s judiciary system.

The speakers included The Wall Street Journal’s senior economics writer and editorial board member Stephen Moore, who grew up in the northern suburbs and attended the University of Illinois.

As expected, Moore spent much of his time criticizing the Obama administration on such issues as the debt ceiling and health care, but saved a few jabs for his home state, saying that Illinois has become a laughingstock among governors throughout the country, particularly among Republican governors who look at Illinois as a model to avoid.

Moore criticized Illinois for approving an income tax hike, saying, “If you want Illinois to be a high-octane state that is growing like gangbusters, just get rid of your income tax.”

He pointed to states like Florida and Texas, noting that those states pay their bills and are high-growth states.

He also recommended Illinois become a right-to-work state.

“This is not about union busting,” he said, but about the civil rights of workers who may not want to join a union.

Jeff Mays, president of the Illinois Business Roundtable, a group comprised of CEOs, focused his comments on education.

“For high school dropouts and high school graduates with no further training or schooling, the future is very very bleak,” he said. “In the coming 20 years, barring substantial change, we won’t have enough people to fill our workplace. Moreover, who is available won’t have the skills that we need.”

Dean DeBiase, chairman of Reboot Partners, said higher taxes are chasing jobs away to friendlier neighboring states like Wisconsin. For example, Illinois, with its Internet tax, provoked the Web coupon company FatWallet.com to relocate to Wisconsin, he said.

Marc Levine, managing principle of Chicago Asset Funding, recommended a reform of the state’s public pension system.

“We can’t tax our way out of this, and we can’t borrow our way out of this,” he said. “We have to reform our way out of it.”

Levine recommended taking state workers “out of this crazy pension system” and move them into the same type of retirement systems private citizens have.