In our recent, not-yet-successful efforts to reform gerrymandering abuses in Illinois, my associates and I have received disquieting, even distressing, feedback about our state.
Because of their political prominence, Bill Daley and Ray LaHood have been calling upon business leaders and wealthy individuals for financial support. Others of us are playing supporting roles.
Too often we hear: “I’ve given up on Illinois.” “Taxes are too high.” “I moved to Florida last year; don’t bother me.” “The state doesn’t care about my business.” “I don’t feel safe in Chicago.”
I am not spitting out sour grapes; just reporting. Indeed, the 2026 annual report on the Illinois economy prepared by Moody’s, and commissioned by the state of Illinois, confirms these negative comments.
On the first page of the report, we learn that: “Illinois’ economy will underperform the Midwest and the U.S in the coming year. … The state will be a step behind the Midwest average, and a few steps behind the nation in job and income growth over the long term.” Deep-rooted problems, a shrinking tax base and “persistent out-migration will weigh on the strength of employment and income gains.”
Why is all so downbeat, when Illinois has strengths and assets that other states envy? As downstate Effingham entrepreneur Jim Schultz has noted, Illinois is arguably among the top three states in the nation in the six Rs critical for economic development: rails, roads, runways, rivers, research and routers (this last R for technology).
Illinois is the nation’s rail hub, ranking first among the states in rail tons and rail carloads moved; half of all container railcars in the nation flow through Chicago. Our network of interstate highways is the richest in the nation. O’Hare International Airport recorded more arrivals and departure flights last year than any airport in the nation, and O’Hare has direct connections to more cities than any airport in the U.S.!
Lake Michigan, our rivers and aquifers provide copious water. The universities of Chicago, Northwestern and Illinois are on all lists of top-tier research institutions in the world, and their scientists collaborate with those at suburban Argonne and Fermilab.
And Illinois is smack-dab in the middle of the largest market in the world.
Our state is big in its own right. If Illinois were a nation, our trillion-dollar economy would make us the 19th-largest economy in the world, about the same in size, respectively, as Mexico, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
So, Illinois has all the right stuff to be a vibrant state, attractive to employers, employees and families, while fostering in-migration rather than out-migration.
Illinois has problems, sure, as Moody notes. All states have difficulties. Texas ranks near the bottom in K-12 education, whereas Illinois ranks 14th, according to U.S. News & World Report. The Southwest is parched and getting worse. Florida in the winter is bumper-to-bumper traffic, and that’s on the side streets!
Illinois can do much better. Yet in recent decades, we have spent so much time beating on one another — unions versus capital, Democrats versus Republicans, downstate versus Chicago — that we never surface to see our strengths and assets.
Many Illinois movers and shakers have shifted focus from state issues to national and global matters that affect their businesses. Yet most of the matters that matter most to families — and to the strength of our nation — are primarily state and local issues: education, colleges and universities, public safety, health care, social services, public health, sanitation, drinking water, mental health and transportation.
We can write off those who have given up on Illinois. A new generation of younger leaders must arise — from Edgar Fellows and the Crain’s 40 Under 40 leaders, as well as other young leaders who are too busy making money and developing startups to worry about being on lists of achievers.
Today’s leadership requires collaboration across divides, just as in the 1960 and 1970s, Republican Gov. Richard Ogilvie, titans at the Chicago Club and Democratic Mayor Richard J. Daley worked together to make Chicagoland and Illinois strong.
We have the right stuff. Now we need the leadership.
Jim Nowlan was Gov. Richard Ogilvie’s reelection running mate in 1972, when they were narrowly defeated. Nowlan has been a state lawmaker, agency director, campaign manager for U.S. Senate and presidential candidates, professor, author and publisher. He lives in Princeton, Illinois.
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