Mitsubishi typical of corporate attitude; should we really cater to it too much?

It has been some three decades since I attended college in Bloomington, Ill., and the major local news story during the time I lived there was the arrival of an auto plant in neighboring Normal by Mitsubishi Motors.

A road sign soon to be obsolete

The coming of a U.S.-based auto plant by a Japanese company was a major event for that city – it supposedly put that central Illinois municipality on the international map. Unless you believe that Illinois State University has such a stellar reputation.

SO THE FACT that Mitsubishi officials let it be known recently that they’re closing that plant – and that the whole saga of Mitsubishi in central Illinois lasted all of 30 years tops – is a major blow to that community.

Yet somehow it doesn’t seem all that shocking that such a thing can happen.

Mitsubishi came to this state when it thought it could gain some sort of economic benefit for itself. The fact that it now no longer senses that benefit and thinks it can gain by going elsewhere is, in many ways, the way business operates.

Which is why I think it is ridiculous for government officials of a certain ideological bent to claim they’re being “pro-business” by conducting themselves in ways that are meant to cater to the whims of what corporate interests want.

WE’RE NOT GOING to get companies locating here with any particular loyalty by making these payoffs – which often involve giving assorted tax breaks to the companies to make them feel like the gross income they’re producing is theirs.

Mitsubishi made a fine auto in Illinois for 30 years

The activist-types who complain about this are often derided as being unrealistic, if not outright naïve. It also is argued that any loss of tax revenue by the local governments is made up for by the fact that the company employed people locally and helped boost the local economy.

The money they were paid in salaries got spent at local supermarkets and shopping malls and was used to make mortgage payments on local homes. Would the local community have been better off if those jobs hadn’t existed in the first place?

Now what makes me bring any of this up?

PART OF IT is the fact that I remember the local fanfare when Mitsubishi came to Illinois. One of the first vehicles off that assembly line, I seem to recall, was provided to then-Gov. James R. Thompson.

RAUNER: Will reforms result in more Mitsubishis

Heck, I remember buying a Mitsubishi vehicle (a Galant, to be exact) back during the 1990s stint that I lived in Springfield, Ill. I remember it as one of the best automobiles I ever owned.

But if we’re being totally honest about things, the fact that Mitsubishi is moving on is something that should have been expected. It may well be the “American Way” to look for a better deal elsewhere.

Which is why I find a lot of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s rhetoric about wanting to implement “reforms” to benefit business interests to be a step in the wrong direction.

DO WE REALLY want to give future Mitsubishis an excuse to come to Illinois for a time – only to move on when they come up with someone willing to make them a “better” offer in the future?

I’m more inclined to think that reform is about creating new business – not playing an endless game of getting existing business to move about and play musical chairs with the Great Lakes states. Leaving the workers without the representation that ultimately will look out for their rights when there is business conflict.

The companies we ought to be encouraging are going to be the ones that come here because they see great benefit to being physically located in our state and think they can create something rather unique here.

Otherwise, the Mitsubishi story of a company coming here for a few decades before moving on and leaving us empty shells of what once was will become all-too-common across Illinois; and that would be truly pathetic.

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EXTRA: Election Daze; Rahm wins again

What must it feel like to be Ed Burke these days?

Will we get Emanuel ...



First, his own wife (who sits on the Illinois Supreme Court) won’t bump off the mayoral candidacy of Rahm Emanuel, to the benefit of Flashy Eddie’s preference – Gery Chico.

THEN, EMANUEL GOES on to win the mayoral campaign so convincingly that we now wonder why we ever thought the election to replace Richard M. Daley would be competitive at all.

And now, Burke’s backing wasn’t enough to help long-time Alderman Bernard Stone hang onto his seat representing the far northern tip of Chicago.

Stone was one of the  incumbent aldermen who didn’t get enough votes to claim victory in the Feb. 22 municipal elections. So his ward was one of 14 across the city (out of 50 overall) that had to resort to a run-off.

In that run-off election held Tuesday, Stone (whom I recall from my City Hall reporting experience in the late 1980s as the press room companion of 1^st Ward Alderman Fred Roti – it took a federal indictment against Roti to break their attachment at the hip) got only 38 percent of the vote.

HIS OPPONENT, DEBRA Silverstein (the wife of state Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago), got the other 62 percent. She also had the backing of mayor-elect Emanuel, which made the 50^th Ward the latest battleground between new mayor Emanuel and old council Finance Chair Burke.

Which makes me wonder if there will be battle after battle between the two once Emanuel starts governing in mid-May.

... versus Burke in coming years?



That’s certainly the way Stone – who had been in the council since the latter days of Richard J. Daley as mayor – sees it. Noting that he lost his committeeman position a few years ago because of Richard M.’s influence, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Stone said, “instead of King Richard, he’s now Emperor Emanuel.

“If guys like Eddie Burke are pushed around by Rahm Emanuel, then this city is in for some rough times,” Stone said.

OUCH!!!

Of course, Stone isn’t the only incumbent City Council member on his way out. Sixth Ward Alderman Freddrenna Lyle was unable to get re-elected, losing to Roderick Sawyer – the son of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, who himself was once the alderman of that South Side ward.

Aldermen Denise Dixon of the 24^th Ward and 36^th Ward Alderman John Rice also managed to lose to challengers on Tuesday.

But it seems that we are being spared/denied the sight of a rapper in the City Council. Che “Rhymefest” Smith’s bid to represent the 20^th Ward is lagging behind that of incumbent Alderman Willie Cochran.

OF COURSE, I am enough of a political geek/observer to find elections and campaigning intriguing regardless of where it takes place.

Hence, I find my interest in the municipal elections of south suburban Chicago Heights, where voters apparently chose “unity” over “integrity” for mayor.

Those were the names of the slates created by the two mayoral hopefuls running for the post left vacant when the interim mayor, Vince Zaranti, decided he didn’t want to run for his own term.

So Unity Party candidate David Gonzalez, the candidate who had to cope with allegations that he was a drug dealer (the reality is that his brother has an arrest record for drug-related offenses), managed to prevail over Integrity Party candidate Joe Faso.

TO LISTEN TO Faso, he’s the candidate who was being viciously attacked and whose supporters were being intimidated by Gonzalez backers into keeping their mouths shut.

In short, this was an ugly political brawl – one so vicious that at one point, local religious leaders suggested that the Cook County clerk’s office close the early voting center they maintained in the south suburb (which was one of the busiest this year in all of Cook County).

Local voters wound up picking the candidate who was a political ally of the man who likely would have run for mayor. But Alex Lopez – who became mayor when state Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, gave up the post to become a legislator – died last year at age 44 due to complications caused by diabetes.

Will Chicago Heights, a city who for many decades had a government that was heavily influenced by elements of what we politely call organized crime, finally gain stability? Who’s to say!

I HAD ONE other election I was watching – even though it didn’t take place anywhere in the Chicago metro area. In downstate Normal, Ill., voters picked the three incumbents seeking re-election to serve again on their Town Council.

Which means that Gary Ohler, who is a fellow Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus (we both graduated the same year), finished fourth (of five candidates) and is NOT about to begin his career as a government official.

That is too bad. Because the Gary I remember was diligent and serious, even if one time he tried to get me involved in a scheme selling Amway products – telling me I could potentially become so wealthy I could retire early and enjoy my life.

I forgive him for that effort, and am kind of glad he will not be exposed to the whiny geeks that all too many political people become once they get elected to office. He deserves better in life.

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