By Glenn Minnis | The Center Square contributor
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – With businesses in Illinois now suffering on multiple levels, state Rep. Brad Halbrook argues it’s clear the state has become its own worst enemy when it comes to charting a clearer pathway.

U.S. Census Bureau statistics show only 5.6% of business applications across the state ultimately turned into establishments open for business within the first year, equating to the third-lowest conversion rate in the Midwest and falling well below the national average of 6.1%.

The data comes despite the state ranking near the top across the region for approval to operate applications submitted.

“It’s extremely difficult to start and grow a new business in Illinois because everything that the Democrat majority does leads to higher costs, more regulation and more restriction,” Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, told The Center Square. “We are now the No. 1 property tax state in the nation, No. 2 in gas taxes and the list goes on. Businesses are going to go where there’s less regulation, less taxing and a more ready supply of the workforce and Illinois is doing everything they can to make it more difficult.”

Illinois lost 218 businesses to other states in 2023, and since 1994, that number jumps to 2,616, with the count tripling since the start of the pandemic.

Halbrook said the bottom may still be yet to surface.

“There’s people that have to live here, whether they’re in the farming business or have a business that just has to stay, but it’s just going to get more difficult,” he said. “Their cost of doing business is going to continue to increase, their margins either shrink or their prices go up, or both. We just have to continue to sound the alarm of how these policies that the Democrats pass every spring and every fall are detrimental to living and working, raising a family and growing a business in the state.”

Florida, Tennessee, Texas and North Carolina rank among the top states for attracting businesses from other states, with California, New York and Maryland near the bottom.