In the least surprising news of the week, it was announced that Illinois has missed out on a new large manufacturing employer that chose to locate just an hour’s drive from the Illinois border in Kokomo, Indiana.
“…South Korean battery manufacturer Samsung and vehicle producer Stellantis today announced that they’ll build a $2.5 billion factory in Kokomo, Ind., about an hour’s drive east of the Illinois state line.
The two companies and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said the facility would create 1,500 jobs, with the total cost potentially rising to more than $3 billion.
Illinois last year had made a run at the plant, which could serve Stellantis’ Belvidere plant. Insiders say the state fell out of the race awhile ago, and the Kokomo facility will be close enough to Belvidere to serve that factory if it is converted to EV production.”
This news comes on the heels of Illinois Democrats crowing about the US Census undercounting Illinois population over the previous decade while ignoring concrete IRS data showing over 100,000 Illinoisans fled the state in 2020 alone.
For Illinois Democrats like Governor JB Pritzker, crafting an alternate reality in which Illinois is actually a healthy state that employers and people want to move to is easier than acknowledging and addressing our highest in the nation taxes, rampant violent crime, and notoriously corrupt state government.
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