It must be a joke when anyone ranks Illinois as a good place to do business

 Illinois sucks when it comes to everything covered here.  CNBC aka NBC is Garbage and again it shows on the Bullshit meter

As an Illinois resident, it was embarrassing to read this on the front page of my local paper.

It's as if no one proofreads articles anymore:

Illinois is the 17th best state to do business in, according to rankings by CNBC.

North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee were the top three states in the rankings.

Alaska, Louisiana and Mississippi were the bottom three states.

Why is Illinois a good state for business?

CNBC gave Illinois high grades in education (2nd in the nation), infrastructure (2nd), tech innovation (14th) and life, health and inclusion (17th).

Why is Illinois a bad state for business?

Illinois received grades in the bottom half of all states for work force (28th), cost of doing business (32nd), economy (33rd) and business friendliness (39th).

What was in Illinois' economic profile?

In CNBC's economic profile of Illinois, it listed the state's population, GDP growth, unemployment rate, top corporate tax rate, individual income tax rate, the gasoline tax and bond rating.

Illinois has a population of 12,582,032 people — the fifth largest in the nation — to bolster its workforce and pump money into the economy by purchasing goods and services.

In the first quarter of 2023, Illinois had a GDP growth of 0.20%.

The unemployment rate in Illinois, as of May 2023, was 4.10%, lower than the national rate of 5.7%.

Illinois corporate tax rate is 9.5%, while the national corporate tax rate is 21%.

The individual income tax rate in Illinois is 4.5%. In 2020, Gov. JB Pritzker's plan to have a graduated income tax, which would have imposed higher tax rates on those making more money, failed to pass on a statewide ballot, keeping the tax rate at 4.5%.

The gas taxes in Illinois come to roughly 78 cents per gallon, according to CNBC's rankings. Illinois has among the highest gas prices in the country.

Illinois has an A3/stable bond rating from Moody's and an A-/stable bond rating from S&P.

...and...

How did CNBC build its rankings?

CNBC says it builds its ranking by scoring "all 50 states on 86 metrics in 10 broad categories of competitiveness. Each category is weighted based on how frequently states use them as a selling point in economic development marketing materials."

First, I will correct some obvious errors:

The article says Illinois had an unemployment rate of 4.1% which was lower than the national average of 5.7%. The national rate was 3.7%, not 5.7%. Illinois actually had the 4th highest unemployment rate among states, beating only California, Delaware (Biden's home state), and Nevada.

Illinois corporate tax rate is 9.5%, while the national corporate tax rate is 21%.

Why would anyone ever compare a state business tax rate to the federal tax rate?

The individual income tax rate in Illinois is 4.5%.

The Illinois rate is 4.95%, not 4.5%

Now for some comments and facts:

The article says that Illinois had a .2% growth rate in the 1st quarter. While nationwide the rate was 2%. I have trouble believing that minimal growth rate is a good selling point for Illinois for businesses. 

In Illinois biggest school district, Chicago, has only 21% of kids that read and do math at grade level. Does that really give Illinois a #2 rating in education in the country? If that is true, it is pretty sad.

And Democrats just defunded a program that allowed poor kids to go to better schools. 

Just 24% of students were chronically absent in the 2018-2019 school year, the final full school year before the pandemic. During that school year, over 26% of CPS 11th graders were at grade level in reading and 27% in math.

This spring, about 21% were proficient in reading and math

Illinois is only one of four states with a higher corporate tax rates over 9%

• Four states—Alaska, Illinois, Minnesota, and New Jersey—levy top marginal corporate income tax rates of 9 percent or higher.

Illinois has the 2nd highest property taxes in the country.

Illinois residents have the privilege of having the highest gas taxes in the country at 85.8 cents, barely beating out California.

Boy, those Democrats really care about the poor, middle class, and small business.

Illinois has the 7th highest overall tax burden in the country.

Illinois has the 2nd worst underfunded government pensions in the country.

A state-by-state review of unfunded pension liabilities for fiscal 2019 shows:

• After New Jersey (20.2% of personal income), unfunded pension obligations were highest in Illinois (19.4%), Hawaii (18.0%), Alaska (16.3%), and New Mexico (15.7%).

Illinois has the 7th highest workers' compensation rates in the country

According to the study, Illinois ranks as the most expensive state in the region, and ties with Oklahoma as the seventh-most-expensive state in the country

Illinois is one of the worst five states in which to be sued. 

The five states where corporate defendants most hate to get sued are West Virginia, Louisiana, Illinois, California and Alabama

The article mentions Illinois credit rating but doesn't state that it is tied for worst in the country

Illinois’ credit rating upgraded from worst to tied for worst

People and businesses are also leaving Illinois at a fast rate. Shouldn't that be a good indication to CNBC of whether Illinois is a good place to do business?

See this Axios piece here: 

Idaho, Montana and Florida saw the highest population growth among U.S. states between 2020-2022, per new U.S. Census Bureau data, while New York, Illinois and Louisiana suffered the most shrinkage.

According to Chief Executive the three worst states to do business are Illinois, New York, and California. Isn't that great. Three of the states with the highest paid legislators are three of the worst states to do business. And they all are run by Democrats. Can anyone spot the correlation? 

The article looked like pure garbage. A great clue that it was subjectively weak was when they rated Illinois the 2nd best for education in the country. 

Why would people trust CNBC’s advice when they continue to employ Jim Cramer who recommended buying FTX and SVB close to when they collapsed.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/07/it_must_be_a_joke_when_anyone_ranks_illinois_as_a_good_place_to_do_business.html

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/07/illinoiss_proabortion_governor_signs_law_to_silence_crisis_pregnancy_centers__with_50000_fines.html

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/illinois-governor-signs-bill-allowing-noncitizens-become-police/