A television ad last fall for Gov. Bruce Rauner’s re-election campaign featured governors from surrounding states touting their economic prosperity while crediting, sarcastically, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

“Thanks Mike Madigan,” Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb beamed into the camera, “(for) helping create new jobs in Indiana. We’re growing union jobs faster than Illinois. Hoosiers love you, Mike Madigan.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker thanked Madigan “for raising taxes” and setting Wisconsin’s economy “on fire.” Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens — before he was forced to resign amid a sex scandal — chimed in: “Big fans here in Missouri. Big time.”

Sure, it was just brassy partisanship — Republicans ganging up on a Democrat. That said, governors of surrounding states, along with those of Texas, Colorado and Tennessee, have been poaching fed-up Illinois residents at an accelerating pace. Last year, Illinois lost a net 33,703 residents, the steepest drop of any state. Businesses, too, are leaping borders. Yet lawmakers in Springfield adjourned their spring session without solving problems plaguing Illinois employers: high property taxes, high workers’ compensation insurance costs, and staggering pension liabilities and other public debts that threaten to further raise taxes here.

Families and individuals are leaving to find what Illinois should offer them: more opportunity. We’re sharing their stories in a series called “The Illinois Exodus.” Many Illinois politicians and their apologists say we’re bad-mouthing Illinois. They wish we would stop.

Instead, today we expand our scope to employers who are fleeing. Politicians, take note: Business owners are taking their families, their employees, their good jobs — all to find, yes, more opportunity. We can’t measure business departures as accurately as census numbers can track people. But look across Illinois’ borders, to places such as northwest Indiana and southeast Wisconsin, at all the former Illinois companies relocated there.

Come November, Illinois will have elections for governor and many legislative seats. How will candidates of both parties explain Springfield’s inaction to employers thinking of leaving?

Vincent Flaska and his family’s company, Hoist Liftruck, are poster children for the exodus. The company that his father grew into a successful niche manufacturer could no longer thrive in Illinois’ costly business climate. The maker of high-capacity forklifts moved to an industrial park in southwest suburban Bedford Park in 1998. By 2015, the Flaskas were ready to move again. Their new address? East Chicago, Ind. The company’s investment there to date? About $28 million.

The family got tired of the games in Illinois: “Every politician has his hand in a honey pot somewhere. The problem wasn’t Bedford Park. The problem was the county and the state,” Flaska says.

Cook County’s property tax system places a heavy share of the tax burden on businesses. Many companies hire lawyers to fight their property assessments. Hoist Liftruck did too. But even if the company won a reduction, the valuations — and thus the tax bills — would shoot back up. More lawyers. More costs. To Flaska, it felt like a racket.

Same for the Illinois workers’ compensation program. Most businesses in the state are required to buy insurance to cover the costs of employees hurt on the job. But Illinois’ system is more expensive than those in most states, more litigious and more vulnerable to fraud. It supports a cottage industry of personal injury lawyers, doctors and insurance companies.

The nonpartisan Workers Compensation Research Institute in May identified Illinois as among the nation’s most expensive states, particularly for indemnity benefits, which cover lost wages, along with greater attorney involvement. Cha-ching. The same worker with the same injury and the same treatment can cost employers twice in Illinois what it would in Indiana.

Lawmakers of both parties know this. Rauner has called for reform. But a Democrat-led General Assembly ignores his proposals. Will lawmakers listen to Flaska? He says his company's premiums spiked to around $3 million annually due to a handful of fraudulent claims. Costs dropped to about $1 million when the company switched to self-insurance. Moving to Indiana cut costs to $275,000.

With the savings, Hoist Liftruck plans to roll out new product lines and grow from 220 full-time employees, the Bedford Park headcount, to about 400 in East Chicago by the end of the year. The company offered every employee a job at the new plant. Most took them, and some moved their families to Indiana.

“What Illinois is pushing for are low-paying jobs,” Flaska said. “Jobs at gas stations, stores. Places that produce sales tax. But the guy working two minimum wage jobs is not the same as the guy with a job at a manufacturing company that has benefits — and gives people a life.”

What will Illinois voters do with that thought?

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