WHEN THE DOORS KEEP CLOSING, STOP BLAMING THE HINGES

Illinois did not create every problem confronting every company that closes its doors. But after years of major corporate departures, high taxes, troubling employment numbers and businesses choosing other states, the people running Illinois can no longer separate themselves from the economic environment they created.

By Staff Writer | August 15, 2026

There is a particular sound a state should never become accustomed to hearing.

It is the sound of a factory gate closing for the last time.

The silence of a workstation that will not be occupied Monday morning.

The conversation at a kitchen table when someone has to tell a spouse that the paycheck is ending.

The announcement that another longtime company is shutting down.

Illinois has heard far too much of that lately.

In Rock Island County, Tyson Foods is closing its massive beef-processing operation in Joslin after more than four decades. Roughly 2,500 workers are affected.

Then came another announcement.

Essendant, the company generations of Illinoisans knew as United Stationers, has filed notices affecting 644 Illinois positions, including 510 connected to its Lincolnshire operation and 134 at its Carol Stream facility.

In a matter of days, more than 3,100 Illinois jobs became part of the conversation about this state's economic future.

These are different companies facing different circumstances. Their decisions should not be carelessly bundled together as though one tax, one regulation or one politician caused both.

But neither should Illinois leaders be permitted to separate every economic loss into its own convenient little box until nobody in government is responsible for anything.

That is not leadership.

Gov. JB Pritzker has governed Illinois since January 2019. Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly. They possess extraordinary power over the laws, budgets, taxes, regulations and economic policies under which Illinois competes.

They wanted that power.

They have exercised that power.

Now they must own the results that come with it.

The buck stops at the top.

Tyson has attributed its restructuring to challenges in its beef business, including constrained cattle supplies. Those factors are real, and Tyson's changes extend beyond Illinois.

But restructuring forces choices.

Facilities are compared. Costs are examined. Markets are evaluated. Capital requirements are weighed. Labor, transportation, efficiency, taxes and the overall cost of doing business become part of corporate calculations.

Some facilities remain part of the future.

Others do not.

Joslin did not.

Illinois did not create America's cattle-supply problem. But Illinois government is responsible for creating the strongest and most competitive environment it reasonably can so that when corporations make difficult decisions, this state is fighting from a position of strength rather than explaining another loss after it happens.

State Rep. Ryan Spain described what the Tyson decision means beyond a corporate balance sheet.

“This is devastating to our region, to the families that depend on the income they receive from this factory, and to the communities who will bear the downstream impacts of this closure.”

— State Rep. Ryan Spain

Those “downstream impacts” may be the most important part of this story.

A job does not exist in economic isolation.

The worker earning that paycheck buys groceries, makes a mortgage payment, purchases a vehicle, eats at restaurants, hires contractors, pays taxes and spends money throughout the community.

The plant itself purchases goods and services. Suppliers depend on it. Trucking companies move its products. Other businesses exist partly because thousands of people go to work there every day.

Then the economic engine stops.

The damage travels.

And eventually it reaches people who never worked for Tyson at all.

That is why the Essendant announcement deserves just as much attention.

Another 644 positions.

Another longtime Illinois corporate name.

Another collection of paychecks being pulled from the economy.

Another reminder that when businesses close or leave, Illinois does not merely lose jobs.

Illinois loses taxpayers. Illinois loses customers. Illinois loses investment. Illinois loses economic activity. Illinois loses revenue.

Government's obligations, however, do not leave with them.

Schools still need funding.

Roads still need repair.

Police and fire departments still operate.

Pension obligations still exist.

State and local governments still need revenue.

When part of the economic base disappears while those obligations remain, pressure shifts toward those still standing.

The businesses that remain.

The homeowners who remain.

The workers who remain.

The taxpayers who remain.

That is the hidden invoice attached to economic decline.

And there is a simple economic reality Springfield cannot legislate away:

You cannot tax economic activity that no longer exists.

You cannot collect income taxes from a paycheck that disappeared.

You cannot collect the same economic activity from a business that closed.

And government cannot continually compensate for a shrinking economic base by reaching deeper into the pockets of those who remain without eventually affecting their decisions, too.

That is how a business-climate problem becomes a taxpayer problem.

And Tyson and Essendant did not arrive in a vacuum.

During Pritzker's years as governor, Illinois has watched a remarkable collection of major corporate names move headquarters, consolidate operations elsewhere or close significant Illinois operations.

Boeing moved its global headquarters from Chicago to Northern Virginia.

Caterpillar moved its global headquarters from Deerfield to Irving, Texas.

Citadel moved its global headquarters from Chicago to Miami.

TTX, headquartered in Chicago for more than half a century, moved its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.

PEAK6 Investments moved its global headquarters from Chicago to Austin, Texas.

Tyson Foods, years before the Joslin announcement, moved to consolidate corporate employees from Chicago and Downers Grove into its Arkansas headquarters.

And now Illinois is confronting the loss of Tyson's Joslin operation and hundreds of Illinois positions associated with Essendant's restructuring.

These companies did not make identical decisions.

They did not leave for identical reasons.

And no credible analysis should pretend otherwise.

But acknowledging the differences does not make the cumulative record disappear.

It makes the cumulative record impossible to ignore.

A headquarters departure is also about more than the number of jobs transferred on moving day.

Headquarters carry executives, professional jobs, corporate spending, philanthropy, business relationships, prestige and influence.

Caterpillar still employs significant numbers of people in Illinois.

Citadel did not erase every Chicago position when it moved its headquarters.

Boeing's departure did not somehow erase its Illinois history.

But Illinois lost those headquarters.

That matters.

Economic power can leave gradually.

First the headquarters moves.

Then the next expansion occurs somewhere else.

The next generation of executives builds relationships somewhere else.

Corporate philanthropy begins following leadership.

The next major investment is made closer to the new center of gravity.

Eventually, yesterday's Illinois company becomes a company that merely has operations in Illinois.

There is a difference.

And other states understand it.

They compete aggressively for headquarters.

They compete for factories.

They compete for warehouses.

They compete for technology companies.

They compete for workers.

They compete for capital.

They compete for the economic future Illinois once had the luxury of assuming would remain here.

That luxury is gone.

Illinois is competing every single day.

And the scoreboard should make Springfield uncomfortable.

Illinois corporations generally face a 7 percent state corporate income tax and a 2.5 percent Personal Property Replacement Tax, producing a combined 9.5 percent rate for affected corporations.

The Tax Foundation's 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index ranks Illinois 38th overall.

Illinois ranks 42nd on corporate taxes.

It ranks 41st on property taxes.

It ranks 42nd on unemployment-insurance taxes.

Indiana ranks 10th overall.

Those rankings do not prove why Boeing went to Virginia, Caterpillar went to Texas, Citadel went to Florida or Tyson closed Joslin.

They establish something broader.

Illinois enters the competition for jobs and investment carrying disadvantages that state leaders have had years to address.

The labor numbers add to the concern.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Illinois' unemployment rate stood at 5.1 percent in June 2026.

Indiana stood at 3.3 percent.

Wisconsin stood at 3.3 percent.

Iowa stood at 3.2 percent.

Those states are not merely our neighbors.

They are our competitors.

And one of them is now competing for something that would have seemed almost unimaginable not long ago.

The Chicago Bears.

The Bears have said their “sole focus” for a new stadium and surrounding mixed-use development is Hammond, Indiana.

The Chicago Bears are focusing their stadium effort on Indiana.

No final relocation has occurred, and Illinois taxpayers should not be expected to hand a billionaire-owned professional sports franchise a blank check simply to keep it inside the state.

But the significance should not be minimized.

Indiana has managed to put itself in serious contention for one of the most recognizable institutions in Illinois history.

Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren has publicly praised Indiana officials and their partnership.

That should sting in Springfield.

Not because Indiana is doing something wrong.

Because Indiana is competing.

The stakes extend beyond football.

A modern enclosed stadium and surrounding development could generate construction, hospitality, retail and entertainment activity while competing for concerts, major sporting events and other large-scale attractions.

If that development eventually rises in Hammond, the team can continue calling itself the Chicago Bears.

The economic activity surrounding its new home will still occur in Indiana.

Illinois cannot collect taxes on nostalgia.

Boeing, Caterpillar, Citadel, TTX, PEAK6, Tyson, Essendant and the Bears are not one story.

But they belong in the same conversation.

That conversation is about whether Illinois has become more or less competitive under the people who have been given the power to run it.

And after more than seven years, that conversation belongs squarely at the governor's door.

Pritzker and his administration can legitimately point to companies that have expanded or invested in Illinois. The state remains capable of winning significant projects, and those successes are part of the record.

But they are not the entire record.

Economic leadership cannot be measured by ribbon cuttings alone.

A state with Illinois' size, infrastructure, talent, transportation network and geographic advantages should attract investment.

The harder measure is whether Illinois is becoming stronger against the states competing for the same jobs, companies, workers and capital.

On that measure, there are warning signs Springfield should stop explaining and start confronting.

Illinois' unemployment rate remains well above several neighboring states.

Its tax competitiveness remains weak.

Its population, despite recent improvement, remained below its 2020 estimates base in 2025.

Thousands of workers are now affected by the Tyson and Essendant announcements.

Major corporations have moved their headquarters elsewhere during Pritzker's tenure.

And the Chicago Bears are openly concentrating on building their future across the Indiana border.

One announcement can be dismissed as circumstances.

Two can be called coincidence.

A series demands examination.

At some point, the pattern becomes part of the performance.

That is where responsibility matters.

Illinois Democrats hold the governor's office.

They hold supermajorities in the Illinois House and Senate.

They have had years to shape the tax structure, regulatory climate, spending priorities and economic policies of this state.

That means they cannot have it both ways.

When a company announces hundreds of new jobs, Springfield cannot rush to the microphone to claim that decision as evidence its policies are working and then disappear behind corporate explanations when hundreds or thousands of jobs leave.

You cannot hold the ribbon at every grand opening and disappear from the picture when the moving trucks arrive.

Power and accountability come as a package.

For more than seven years, Pritzker has been Illinois' chief executive.

This is no longer a new administration asking for time.

This is a governor asking voters for another term.

That makes the economic record a performance review.

Illinois possesses advantages most governors would love to inherit.

Chicago.

O'Hare.

World-class universities.

A massive rail and interstate network.

Extraordinary agricultural capacity.

A historic manufacturing base.

Financial institutions.

Medical research.

Technology.

A central location almost tailor-made for American commerce.

Illinois was dealt an extraordinary economic hand.

The people running it should be judged by how they have played those cards.

And that judgment cannot be separated from the people who ultimately pay the price when Illinois loses.

The Tyson worker wondering what happens after the final paycheck.

The Essendant employee suddenly looking for another job.

The restaurant owner watching customers disappear.

The small employer absorbing another cost increase.

The homeowner opening another property-tax bill.

The young professional deciding whether Illinois is where a career should be built.

The taxpayer wondering why government keeps getting more expensive even as pieces of the economic base disappear.

These are not statistics.

They are the people state government is supposed to serve.

The danger for Illinois is not that every corporation will suddenly leave tomorrow.

It is something quieter.

One headquarters.

One factory.

One expansion.

One family.

One investment.

One decision at a time.

That is how economic momentum moves.

And once it moves, reversing it becomes extraordinarily difficult.

Pritzker did not personally close Tyson.

He did not personally move Boeing, Caterpillar or Citadel.

He did not personally order Essendant to eliminate Illinois positions.

That misses the point.

The governor's responsibility is the environment in which Illinois competes.

The supermajority's responsibility is the policy framework businesses, workers and taxpayers must live under.

They have had the power.

They have had the time.

Now they have a record.

And records have consequences.

November is when the organizational chart turns upside down.

The governor becomes the applicant.

The legislators become the applicants.

The people become the hiring committee.

Voters should give credit where credit is due.

They should assign responsibility where responsibility belongs.

And then they should decide whether the people who have been running Illinois have earned another contract.

Because in the private sector, leadership is ultimately measured by performance.

When an organization loses its competitive edge, explanations only go so far.

Eventually, somebody is held accountable.

Government should not be exempt from the standard everyone else is expected to live under.

The buck stops at the top.

And on November 3, it reaches the voters.

Official and supporting sources:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: State unemployment data, including Illinois' 5.1 percent June 2026 unemployment rate and comparative rates for Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.

• Illinois Department of Revenue: Illinois' 7 percent corporate income tax and 2.5 percent corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax.

• Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity/WARN records: Illinois worker-dislocation information, including Essendant's reported 510 affected positions in Lincolnshire and 134 in Carol Stream.

• U.S. Census Bureau: Illinois population estimates.

• Tyson Foods: Corporate statements concerning changes to its beef operations and previously announced consolidation of corporate employees.

• Chicago Bears: Public statements concerning the franchise's stadium search and its focus on Hammond, Indiana.

• Boeing: Corporate announcement concerning relocation of its global headquarters to Northern Virginia.

• Caterpillar: Corporate announcement concerning relocation of its global headquarters from Illinois to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

• Citadel: Corporate information concerning the relocation of its global headquarters to Miami.

• TTX: Corporate announcement concerning its headquarters relocation from Chicago to Charlotte.

• PEAK6: Corporate announcement concerning relocation of its global headquarters from Chicago to Austin.

• Tax Foundation, 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index: Illinois ranks 38th overall, 42nd for corporate taxes, 41st for property taxes and 42nd for unemployment-insurance taxes.