Illinois has been hit especially hard during the national recession. We have seen numerous businesses leaving Illinois and heading to bordering states due to a more business friendly environment.
This session, I sponsored several measures to make Illinois more business friendly by providing incentives and tax breaks for small business owners to give them more incentive to stay and grow here in Illinois.
The first measure creates a pilot program in which the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will provide interest-free loans to businesses to restore and update buildings that have been vacant for at least 90 days. The bill applies to buildings being purchased for the purpose of retail, manufacturing and office space. The other measure allowing taxing districts to lower property taxes for new businesses moving into buildings that have been vacant for at least 24 months.
We want to give local businesses attractive financial resources and reward them for utilizing our current infrastructure. Not only will it help rejuvenate the local economy, it will also help maintain our existing buildings.
Source: http://www.toihutchinson.com/issues/
