The Tale Of Two Costcos: Why Businesses Don’t Open In Illinois

You often hear about how much worse taxes are in Illinois than other places but you've probably never heard it laid out quite like this. 

Chicago Morning's Answer with Amy Jacobson and Dan Proft broke down a scenario that's currently happening between two exact Costco stores. One is outside of Milwaukee the other is in Melrose Park, a suburb of Chicago. Both stores are of similar size and both stores made about the same last year.

The comes when the stores tally their net earnings on the year. The one in Wisconsin reported about $8 million dollars in net earnings. The Melrose Park store? About $600,000.  That's roughly 13 times less. This is just due to what the host calls "shake down" costs. Roof inspections, extra taxes, etc.

We've long heard that business don't want to start up here in Illinois. If more stories like this get out we won't have much left.