Sen. Oberweis: Illinois so 'screwed up,' family dairy biz pulling back new investing here

"If you own land, where is the value likely to go up? Where you have growth and low taxes," says one of the Legislature's few business owners. "Neither is the case with Illinois."

   

CoStar Group

State Sen. Jim Oberweis cited two reasons for the company decision to no longer pursue company-owned sites: high property taxes and declining population.

One of the few business owners serving in the General Assembly says his company is going to cut back significantly on new investments in Illinois, a move he insists is no stunt but is prompted by the state's high taxes and weak economy.

State Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, said his Oberweis Dairy chain will continue opening ice cream/burger/pizza shops in Illinois, but unlike expansion in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Missouri, the outlets in this state will be in leased storefronts and no longer company-owned real estate.

Oberweis cited two reasons: high property taxes and declining population in the state and Chicago metropolitan area.

"If you own land, where is the value likely to go up? Where you have growth and low taxes," Oberweis said. "Neither is the case with Illinois. How badly the pols have screwed up the state."

The North Aurora-based company now owns 42 sites in the Midwest and has been adding three to five locations a year in Illinois, said Oberweis, an owner of the company. It has already committed to purchase and build stores in Orland Park and Geneva, but from now on, "we're going to look at renting property rather than buying." He announced no plans to dump existing company property, only to acquire no more.

Oberweis conceded he’ll have to pay property taxes as either a tenant or an owner, but said that in most cases he’d hope to make back the taxes in the long run with an increase in property values. That’s increasingly unlikely in slow-growing Illinois, he said.

Now, Oberweis is a hard-right conservative who's not been shy about making disruptive comments in races for the U.S. Senate and other contests. He's a vigorous opponent of the graduated income tax being pitched by Democratic gubernatorial hopeful J.B. Pritzker.

But at the moment, Oberweis isn't a candidate for anything; his Senate seat is not up for re-election this year. His office didn't send out a statement or otherwise publicize his plan. Instead, the news came up in an interview with my colleague Dennis Rodkin on another matter, with Oberweis returning my call asking him to elaborate.

Above and beyond that, Oberweis seemed genuinely distressed to announce his company is cutting back here—not the kind of thing a politician usually likes to say.

"You're speaking to one fired-up SOB," Oberweis declared, noting that his family has lived in the metro area for 160 years and has been in the dairy business for 90 years. "This really pains me. . . .We've got so much working for us, location and transportation and universities. Everything except the politicians."

Call it a primal scream of sorts from a pretty well-known business official.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg-hinz-politics/sen-oberweis-illinois-so-screwed-family-dairy-biz-pulling-back-new-investing?fbclid=IwAR22fH54erqNd59XZlO-Y2bL1X7BJvZH22xrks4UT8Po9fyndordRJT-aZA