Three weeks before Governor Pritzker gave his combined State of the State and Budget address in which he announced that he wants $900 million in tax increases, primarily on businesses, he signed a deal with Lion Electric which gives them $50 million in state tax incentives.
Now, admittedly these tax incentives will not be given out in one year. But Gov. Pritzker is essentially acting as a venture capitalist in a start-up company. He is putting taxpayer money on the line for a company that lost $5.5 million on revenue of $253.5 million in 2023.
Pritzker is investing in them with our money only because they produce a product he likes – electric vehicles.
One month after signing the deal with Illinois and promising to bring jobs to Illinois and eight days after Pritzker’s speech, which was remarkably silent on electric vehicles and green energy, Lion Electric announced it is laying off workers.
Temporarily.
Three weeks before the deal with Lion Electric, Pritzker signed a deal with a company called Wieland North America, Inc. Wieland makes copper products used in electric vehicles. Their incentive package is worth in total $231 million over 30 years, but it appears that capitol improvements could give them $59 million in a much shorter period.
As I noted in last week’s newsletter, just two months ago Pritzker gave Gotion $125 million upfront without even building permits being finalized for their EV battery start-up. Gotion’s entire tax incentive package is worth $536 million.
Last year’s incentives just for the Reimaging Electric Vehicles (REV) credit, also included $17.7 million for Prysmian, $4.6 million for Manner Polymers and an unknown amount for Microlink Devices.
The grand-daddy of incentives though will likely go to Stellantis who agreed as part of their negotiation with the United Auto Workers (UAW)to re-open its Belvidere plant for EV and battery manufacturing. The company is going to invest $5 billion, which is 2.5 times what Gotion is planning to invest. Their tax incentives will no doubt be the largest in the state’s history.
Let’s be clear – the EV market is in trouble, so what Pritzker is doing is gambling with our money at the same time he is hiking taxes on other businesses. In the last eight months, for just one tax incentive = REV credits – the total is at least $840 million with $125 million already paid out.
That $125 million is nearly 14% of the new taxes he wants from Illinoisans for the largest General Fund budget in history admidst the largest outmigration in history over the last decade.
The guy is crazy – or we are if we don’t put up a fight.
Here’s a screenshot from this Illinois Policy Institute article about Pritzker’s projected tax hikes.
Hiking taxes on everyone else while he gives special deals for his green energy fantasies is just wrong.
Meanwhile, Ohio is planning on getting rid of their income tax because they are producing so much natural gas and Texas Oil and Gas are Kicking A**!
These states realize fossil fuels are NOT going away – they are expanding. While Texas still has lots of Wind power, they are not trying to kill their reliable energy that keeps producing jobs and tax money. And Ohio is leaning into fracking realizing natural gas is their ticket to lowering taxes and providing reliable energy
Read about Ohio’s plan to eliminate their income tax by 2030 here:
Texas Oil and Gas broke production records last year. Can somebody give the report to Pritzker’s people? https://www.txoga.org/2023eeir/
Here are a few key excerpts:
Texas hit production records in six of 12 months in 2023, producing as much as 5.6 million barrels per day of crude oil in October 2023 – more than 42% of the nation’s total and the highest monthly oil production total ever.
New record-highs in natural gas marketed production occurred in seven of 12 months in 2023, and in October eclipsed 1.0 trillion cubic feet in a single month for the first time ever, accounting for nearly 30% of the nation’s production.
Texas refineries set two new processing records in 2023: Texas refineries processed a record 5.6 million barrels of crude oil per day in July 2023. And as Texas produced and exported record amounts of natural gas liquids (NGLs) in 2023, refineries also utilized record amounts of NGLs.
Staples noted the United States is not only the world’s number one producer of oil and natural gas – with Texas at the front – but the nation also leads the world in emissions reductions. “No one produces, transports, and refines oil and natural gas with the same commitment to safety and protecting the environment as American producers. Industry-led initiatives like the Texas Methane & Flaring Coalition and The Environmental Partnership are dramatically reducing emissions and achieving environmental gains unseen anywhere else in the world.”
And the industry is filling the coffers of state and local governments in Texas:
From the report:
Texas Oil and Natural Gas Industry Paid Record $26.3 Billion in State and Local Taxes, State Royalties in Fiscal Year 2023, Shattering Previous High by More than $1.5 Billion.
Industry Rewrote the Oil & Natural Gas Record Book in 2023 for Production, Exports, Refining, Crude Oil Supply, Tax Revenue
Texas Independent School Districts Receiving $2.81 Billion, Counties Receiving $885.6 Million In Property Taxes From Oil And Natural Gas Production, Pipelines And Gas Utilities
Back to Illinois, one more thing people should be aware of. Every REV tax incentive agreement I looked at has this standard language in it about discrimination. Not a rule about discrimination, but rather a requirement to report on the race of workers and management. Why is that policy not racist?
XI. DIVERSITY REPORTING; NON-DISCRIMINATION A. Reporting. Pursuant to the requirements of Section 50 of the Act, the Company shall submit diversity and hiring plan progress reports in the format provided by Department. The first such report shall be due April 15, 2025, and subsequent reports shall be due by April 15 of each subsequent year during the term of the Agreement. The report shall include detail about the Company’s progress in implementing its hiring plan and include information about the diversity of the Company’s workforce at the Project, including full-time and part-time employees, its contractors, as well as the diversity of the Company’s board of directors. The report shall also include a report on the diversity of the vendors used by the Company within the State of Illinois, for publication on the Department’s website, with such report containing the information listed in Section 50(b) of the Act. These reporting requirements shall not apply for any year in which the Company globally employs fewer than one hundred (100) full-time employees. If the Company is delinquent in submitting its report, the Department will not issue a Certificate of Verification to the Company until it has submitted the required report.
In case you missed it, the above policy isn’t the only racist policy embedded in state organizations. This week news broke that Western Illinois University is being sued over 16 scholarships that are discriminatory.
This article has the details stating:
“The Equal Protection Project alleges that 16 scholarships at the university are discriminatory.
The complaint states the scholarships “either restrict eligibility to students who are ‘African American,’ ‘Black Women,’ ‘Latino,’ or students who identify as ‘LGBTQI+’ or give preference to such students.