To subscribe to Capitol Fax, click here. *** UPDATED x3 - Sears execs visited two states - Head tax behind Ford expansion - Quinn predicts CME deal by end of this month *** Good news and bad news Wednesday, Oct 5, 2011 *** UPDATE *** From the Sun-Times… Sears executives have visited potential new headquarters sites in Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio, but say they remain open to negotiating with Illinois officials to keep the retailer’s headquarters in Hoffman Estates. The Sears leaders visited potential sites, toured offices and met with municipal, business, state and economic development officials in Austin and in Columbus, sources said Wednesday. Sears officials expect to make a decision by the end of the year. * If the union’s contract is ratified, Illinois will get some good job news… The UAW and Ford reached a tentative agreement on a new contract that will mean 2,000 new jobs in the Chicago area, including 1,100 new jobs and a new shift at the company’s Chicago assembly plant next year if workers approve the deal, the union and Illinois politicians said Tuesday. Ford now employs roughly 2,700 workers in Chicago at the Torrence Avenue plant, which produces the Lincoln MKS, Ford Taurus and Ford Explorer on two shifts. It also employs 900 workers at its Chicago Heights stamping plant. Ford plans to add 1,100 workers at the Chicago assembly plant next year and an additional 900 workers at the stamping plant and assembly plant within the next four years. Both Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel said (separately) yesterday that they’d been working with Ford to help facilitate the new jobs. *** UPDATE *** The Sun-Times reports that Mayor Emanuel’s agreement to cut the head tax in half was behind Ford’s decision to expand employment… The $4-a-month employee head tax despised by Chicago businesses would be cut in half, depriving the city of $23 million in annual revenue, under a surprise ordinance proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday. Emanuel campaigned on a promised to phase out the head tax over four years by lopping off $1 from it each year. But he opted to do it twice as fast — and eliminate the tax entirely by July 2014 — because the deal that nailed down as many as 2,000 new jobs at a Far South Side Ford plant was contingent on the phase out. “This was a significant piece of helping us secure the 1,200 jobs at the Ford plant and what they’re gonna add also to the stamping plant across the street. It’s another 700” jobs, the mayor said. * But, CME Group’s Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy continues to grumble loudly about Illinois… International expansion aside, CME’s Duffy again raised the possibility that the CME could relocate its headquarters to another state to escape Illinois’ “outrageous” and “inappropriate” taxes. Illinois raised taxes earlier this year, and several other states are wooing CME with proposals that Duffy called “viable.” Duffy said he is working with Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, state legislators and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to find a solution that would keep CME in the city, but said he has a “fiduciary duty” to do what is best for shareholders. *** UPDATE *** Interesting… A deal to keep CME Group Inc. from bolting the state could be reached as early as the start of the legislature’s veto session this month, Gov. Pat Quinn said Wednesday. An agreement aimed at reducing the corporate income tax liability for the company, which is the parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, would require approval of the General Assembly, Quinn said. - Posted by Rich Miller

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