Quinn defends business climate in State Farm stop

Governor Quinn is joined by Lt. Governor Sheila Simon and State Rep. Dan Brady at State Farm Thursday. (Photo By Paul Morello/WJBC)

BLOOMINGTON – Gov. Pat Quinn doesn’t think Illinois’ business climate had a major impact on Caterpillar’s decision not to build a new plant in the state.

Quinn said Thursday it would have been difficult for Illinois to compete for the new Caterpillar plant, for purely geographical reasons.

“What the company needed for this particular plant was a deep sea port, so we weren’t going to be able to compete for that. We’re not on an ocean, the last time I checked,” he said.

The Peoria and Galesburg regions, as well as McLean County, were competing for the plant, which will relocate from Japan, bringing with it about 1,000 jobs. The plant will instead be built in North Carolina.

Some lawmakers have said the decision is indicative of the state’s unhealthy business climate, but Quinn disagrees.

“We have reformed our worker’s compensation laws, we’ve reformed unemployment insurance laws, we’ve streamlined environmental permitting. Caterpillar and others asked us to work on a research and development tax credit, and we’re also doing that,” he said.

Quinn was at State Farm on Thursday to tout the Illinois Pathways Initiative, a public-private education partnership that aims to foster focused learning in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. The program will work with businesses to connect students to internships and jobs in the STEM areas.

“We can’t cut our way to prosperity,” he said. “We must grow and build our economy. The key to a better budget is a stronger economy and there’s no better way to have a stronger economy than better education.”

Quinn hopes the program will help increase the amount of adults who have a college degree or a career certificate to 60 percent in the state by 2025.

The program is funded by a $2.3 million federal grant.

WJBC’s Patti Penn talked with Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon about the Pathways Initiative Thursday. Listen to that interview here.

Paul Morello can be reached at paul@wjbc.com.